AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Thursday, Austin city council approved an item aimed at reducing graffiti across the city.
"This is something that, since I've been back in City Hall...this is one of the things that I've probably whined about the most. So I am very happy we are moving forward on this," Mayor Kirk Watson said.
Now passed, Austin will eventually be allowed to respond to 3-1-1 complaints related to graffiti instead of relying solely on a property owner. The process would involve first validating the complaint and then working with the private property owner to remove the graffiti.
What gives with the ‘Buscar’ graffiti?"We have been getting complaints for graffiti for the last couple of years that I know of, and we've been trying to find an avenue in which we can go out into the community and assist with graffiti removal," said Dedric Knox, who will manage the pilot graffiti abatement program for Development Services.
According to data obtained by KXAN, the city has received nearly 11,000 3-1-1 service requests related to graffiti since the start of 2022.
In the new initiative, once the complaint is validated and the property owner is amenable, the city will paint over the graffiti free of charge.
“If we find that the owners are not responding to our initial letter, or they tell us they don’t want us to do it, then we essentially send them an additional notice to try to work with them and see if they will clean it themselves," Knox said.
The Development Services Department said the pilot program will last one year. If it is successful, the program can be extended.
“We heard from a number of people across the city that they just felt like they’re seeing more and more graffiti, and what was the city doing about it,” said District 5 Council Member Ryan Alter.
“We're just trying not to put an additional financial burden on people, but we are trying to have areas that have been graffiti-ed cleaned up for the public,” said Alter.
If passed, the city would be allowed to "use latex paint materials that are environmentally friendly that may not match the existing background surface color," according to city documents.
Graffiti has been a consistent issue in Austin. KXAN’s Grace Reader found that in 2021 and 2022, the city spent over $1 million cleaning it up.
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