City hall is hoping a new program will cover up some of Prince George's more unsightly decorations.
On Wednesday morning, Mayor Shari Green was joined by members of the now-disbanded task force on crime, and community leaders, to launch Graffiti Free PG - a new initiative that will roll out over the next few months.
"We know that [graffiti's] a problem and when it goes unattended... it leads to some abandonment," said Green. "It doesn't look great, it's unsightly and it can cause some other behaviour attached to crime."
The city is partnering with the Prince George RCMP, Downtown Business Improvement Association, Telus and B.C. Hydro for the new program which aims to engage community members to clean up their neighbourhood.
A budget of $20,000 has been set aside to help put the program into action.
"And we're just working out the details of how we're going to allocate that money, but we're looking forward to having neighbourhoods and different organizations that might be able to apply for some micro grants to get some resources, get the paint, get the materials so they can go out and do that sweat equity and get some graffiti covered up," Green said.
A graffiti reporting and removal program was one of the recommendations made by the city's select committee on crime reduction and public safety, also known as the mayor's task force on crime, which ran for about 10 months in 2013.
Council approved the committee's seven recommendations for implementation over an 18-month period before it was disbanded.
The city's property maintenance bylaw calls for graffiti to be removed from private property, but the city has to look after its own property as well, said Green, who, along with the others got the ball rolling by covering tags on the underpass at Strathcona Avenue leading to Carrie Jane Gray park.
On Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m., Telus employees will descend on Lorne Park as part of the company's national Day of Giving, said Telus home team manager Ryan Peddie.
"So we're going to have a really large volunteer initiative to come out and do all of the fence painting for the residents in the neighbourhood, getting rid of graffiti in that area as well," Peddie said. "And hopefully make it a place the families want to go to again."
Graffiti is a problem city-wide, said DBIA director Carla Johnston, and the association is putting together its own program to support businesses with labour, paint and supplies to counteract it.
"Certainly within the downtown, we're keen to beautify the area as much as we can as one of the core purposes of the BIA," said Johnston.
City staff also cover or remove graffiti as part of regular maintenance work, said parks supervisor Sean LeBrun.
The city is also going to create a graffiti reporting portal, similar to the function that allows residents to report potholes, on its website.
In the meantime, residents can contact the city service centre at 250-561-2600 or [email protected].
