After vandals tagged the historic Fox Theatre downtown this weekend at the same time the “art form” was being celebrated at the Tucson High MEChA Unity Fest, Tucson’s Mayor Rothschild called the “despicable act” an “attack on us all.
Rothschild said that “tagging is fundamentally an attack on the community.” According to Rothschild, “the city increased funding for graffiti enforcement and abatement by $880,000 in next year’s budget – for a total $1.6 million allocated to fighting this criminal activity.”
That will be a change and very confusing to the community’s youth. Over the years, the City of Tucson has done little to prosecute taggers, and has gone so far as to pay for graffiti classes for teenagers and youth.
After Councilwoman Regina Romero came under fire for providing $8,000 from her office’s youth fund to support the self-expression in Krylon© created monograms, in 2009, the City leaders moved to ease laws against the form of vandalism.
In 2010, Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik made the motion in support for dismissal of mandatory jail time by graffiti offenders in exchange for community service. The City went so far as to give parents of the offenders the option to do the time for their child’s crime. Parents are now permitted to do the community service on their behalf of their kids, if their kids are under the age of 18.
The ordinance passed with a 5 to 0 vote.
Under the old ordinance a violation called for 48 hours in jail, a $250 fine and at least 80 hours of community service. The new ordinance comes with a $250 fine, only 20 hours of community service, and no jail time.
Local businesses continue to struggle with the cost of clean-up. The City’s contractor will remove graffiti only on surfaces within the City right-of way, from commercial and public properties such as, power poles, exterior walls around property, etc. Commercial property owners and Homeowners are responsible for removing grafitti on their buildings or areas within their property.
Priority One Commercial & Residential Services has donated their services to clean up the theater. The theater is taking donations to purchase and install a security camera network focused on the theatre to help deter any future graffiti attacks.
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