I am a Nevada State Licensed Contractor, I have been a contractor going on 29 years. We are all alarmed at the recent statistic shared by the California Realtors Board. Graffiti can negate your homes property value by up to 20%. If we try to get involved and confront the taggers we run the very high probability of getting shot. Two workers have been killed while removing graffiti and two women in different cities were killed when they just confronted the taggers. (I have attached the News clipping below!) I specialize in deciphering graffiti and identifying the gangs related to the markings. Graffiti is being used to sell products. If you look closely you might see My space names, Websites and even phone numbers. All are being tagged with the intent of selling everything from drugs to AK47's.

I have been working with DOTs, DOE, Chambers of Commerce, and Gang Task Forces trying to help educate our many cities about graffiti and its vast effects. Here in the USA are spending over 40 Billion on graffiti and related issues.

1 The city of Chicago has set the standard of a 1.3 million fine for not removing graffiti in a reasonable amount of time.

2 This has caused all Public Works to feel financial pressure to paint over as much graffiti as possible a day. Matching colors is close to impossible with the factors of weather, oxidation, and UV degradation to compete with. The result of painting over the graffiti is now homes, buildings, and sound walls have a new problem. The graffiti is now hidden by a quilt of colors, all varying in sizes and shapes. Everyone knows the new paint is hiding gang related symbols; the public still show signs of concern and fear in these areas. The vandalism is hidden but the new "Ghetto Quilt Effect" influences the price of properties and strain on businesses. The current paint over solution is in sharing failing. Gangs are using our walls to advertise sales of their products. I am not alone sharing this information; Timothy Kephart analyzed 450 tags and wrote his Master's Thesis on this very subject.

3 Graffiti has been around a while, originally used to rebuke those in power. Gangs are in essence still rebuking the government, they freely use our highways, buildings and city walls to advertise the goods they are selling. Profits are gathered and in some gang structures those serving time distribute the profit. The "Ghetto Quilt Effect" is affecting all of us in one form or another. There is up to an 80% your customers will not return if graffiti is on your building. Preventative measures need to be taken as soon as you see the first patch. The only proven tactic is the application of anti graffiti coatings. When will our cities acknowledge the need for a long term strategy of protecting our cities walls and buildings from looking like the South Side of Chicago in the 70's. Anti Graffiti coatings are the only proven deterrent to graffiti. Yes, they cost more than just painting over the graffiti a couple of times. I am against losing 20% of my homes value because the city is ignoring the cost of damages graffiti will be costing in the 10 years.

I have attached the news articles below

California | Local News Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times Judy Baca's "Hitting the Wall," under the 4th street bridge downtown, is a victim of graffiti vandals. Cal Trans has been painting over other murals in the area.

Baca: 'shame' on taggers' parents Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Judy Baca's "Hitting the Wall," under the 4th street bridge downtown, is a victim of graffiti vandals. Cal Trans has been painting over other murals in the area.

By Andrew Blankstein and Ari B. Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
4:30 PM PDT, September 28, 2007

Frustrated by the rising toll of graffiti around Southern California, L.A. officials are vowing a new campaign to make the parents of teenage taggers more accountable for the vandalism.
Sheriff Lee Baca said today he wants to implement two new programs to address the rising level of tagging. Baca wants to force the parents of teenagers arrested for tagging to spend time talking to deputies at the jail about the consequences of graffiti. Baca said such meetings would result in a "higher level of shame" for parents who either allow their children to tag or can't control them. For parents who need help, Baca wants to establish a hotline for them to call if they suspect their children are tagging. At the same time, County Supervisor Gloria Molina has proposed a special "graffiti court" to more efficiently death with juvenile graffiti case.

The court would deal exclusively with juvenile vandalism, establishing fines for parents whose kids repeatedly tag and billing them for cleanup costs.

"I've never met a gang banger or tagger that's homeless. They all live somewhere and with someone," Baca said. "The parents are not being held accountable."

The moves come as the toll of graffiti mounts, with Caltrans and county officials reporting major spikes in tagging this year.

In fact, Caltrans has painted over several iconic murals on freeway walls because they were repeatedly defaced.

Recently, two women -- one in Pico Rivera and one in Victorville -- were fatally shot after confronting taggers. Reported graffiti incidents in areas patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department more than doubled between 2002 and 2006, from 2,083 to 4,274 -- a record likely to be broken this year.

1. The California Association of Realtors gave us information on the decrease in property value in an area that has graffiti; they estimated that the decrease in sales price was approximately 20%. With the California Real Estate as it is, that is a huge loss, given that the current median home in California is $522,590, and last year there were 601,800 detached home sales, just as bare bones figure if graffiti went unchecked, You're looking at 315 Billion is sales and if you use the 20%, you have a possible loss of 63 Billion a year!.. This is California alone.... of course the graffiti problem does not affect all homes sales, but in the higher priced areas, San Fran, Sacramento, LA, Orange County, homes cost upwards of $800,000 or more, so it is all relative. Just an interesting figure.....

2. Chicago, IL. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") announced today that Judge David H. Coar of the United States District Court in Chicago has entered a $1.3 million Consent Decree resolving an EEOC racial and sexual harassment lawsuit against Foster Wheeler Constructors, Inc. ("Foster Wheeler"). The lawsuit, which EEOC filed in 1998, arose from complaints EEOC received regarding racial and sexual harassment at a Foster Wheeler construction project in Robbins, Illinois. The harassment included racist and sexist graffiti in portable toilets at the Robbins site

3. Timothy Kephart, a Carson crime analyst, graduate student at California State University-Long Beach, and president of Crime Prevention and Graffiti Consulting, analyzed more than 450 gang graffiti photographs in the Carson area for his master's thesis. "It became clear that gangs were using graffiti to actually communicate," he says.

4. In this same article, James Q. Wilson, UCLA criminologist and framer of the "broken windows" theory, states that signs of disorder in society--such as graffiti, abandoned cars, broken windows, and uncollected trash-frighten law-abiding Citizens into avoiding public places. Those places are then left to criminals who further deface them, creating a downward spiral in which the fear of crime leads to an increase in criminal activity. The presence of graffiti discourages citizens from shopping or living in affected areas. As established businesses relocate or close, new businesses might be reluctant to move into areas where customers would feel unsafe. As property values decline and law-abiding citizens with resources move, once-thriving neighborhoods can quickly degrade into dangerous places. Statistic show there is up to an 80% chance patrons, will not return if they fear current gang activity on your property thus, the seemingly trivial offense of graffiti ultimately can have devastating consequences for a community.

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