North Las Vegas to taggers: Clean up your act

By Conor Shine

Monday, June 22, 2015 | 2 a.m.

On an average day in North Las Vegas, 50 buildings, homes, street signs, walls or utility boxes are tagged with graffiti.

The widespread vandalism is another unfortunate side effect of the city’s financial deterioration during the recession, when a wave of foreclosures pushed homeowners out and allowed blight to creep in.

The city was forced to cut its budget, reducing the number of employees cleaning up graffiti from 12 to three.

“We knew that we had a problem, anyone could see it,” said Greg Blackburn, North Las Vegas’ director of community development and compliance. “It shows the city’s not able to control crime.”

But with the city beginning to claw itself out of its financial hole, it is making a concerted effort to fight back.

A new $6 annual fee approved by the North Las Vegas City Council and added to residents’ water bills aims to raise nearly half a million dollars a year to pay for four new graffiti abatement staffers and upgraded equipment.

The investment is worth it, Blackburn said, as the estimated 18,000 graffiti reports the city receives each year cause more than $2 million in property damage.

In addition to ramping up its graffiti staff, the city is using a number of new technologies, strategies and policies to try to curb vandalism.

Better enforcement

A simple tweak to the rules has given the city added firepower by formally defining graffiti as a nuisance. Before the change, city crews couldn’t force property owners to clean up graffiti. Now, city workers can clean up graffiti on private property themselves and bill the property owners later. It’s the same process used for trash or high grass. The city also is promoting an existing program that gives $250 to people who turn in graffiti vandals, and officials are working with the courts to get more people convicted of graffiti violations sentenced to community service cleaning up the community.

Better tools

One of the biggest changes has been the launch of a smartphone app, similar to one used in Henderson, that allows residents to snap a picture of any graffiti they find and send it to city officials.

Whereas a decade ago the city had a single staffer devoted to handling reports of graffiti, the app automates the process and provides crews geographically coded information that allows them to plan cleanup efforts more efficiently. The new fee will allow the city to buy three trucks over the next two years outfitted with pressure washers and blasting equipment that uses soda ash to remove graffiti from concrete and rock. Other, simpler measures include using standardized colors of paints for buildings to make it easier to cover up graffiti and giving residents their own paint to touch up vandalism in their neighborhoods. The city also is starting to put graffiti-resistant coatings on buildings to allow graffiti to be washed off with soap and water, and is encouraging businesses to do the same.

Next steps

The goal is to respond to and clean graffiti more quickly to help create a more pleasant environment in North Las Vegas, Blackburn said.

Over time, the hope is that increased enforcement will discourage taggers and prevent graffiti.

“We’ve received support from a lot of the businesses because they know graffiti runs customers away,” Blackburn said. “It’s really rewarding when you see people take pride in their community and make it a personal challenge that they’re not going to allow someone to come in and ruin their neighborhood.”