THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412150200
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Is graffiti a matter of aesthetics or public safety? Like weeds, it's both. Weeds are ugly, invite four-legged carriers of diseases and multiply if ignored. So the state permits cities to whack weeds - about 400 times this year - when owners won't and then bill them. Graffiti are ugly, invite two-legged carriers of antisocial diseases and multiply if ignored. So this city - and the Virginia Housing Study Commission - are asking state permission for localities to clean up graffiti on property whose owners don't.
The Beach already provides, free, a cleanup crew (one city em-ployee and two non-violent jail inmates) to owners who let the crew on their property; to date, all owners have. To date, the crew has cost taxpayers $11,200. Thanks to quick cleanup and increased law enforcement, the number of new incidences is down. Two local graffiti ``artists'' arrested in Norfolk this fall told police they'd abandoned Virginia Beach because it's gotten too tough. Good.
Getting the suggested legislation past the Assembly may be tougher. Americans generally, and wisely, are reluctant to let government intrude on private property or to limit artistic license.
But the proposed law (printed below) provides due process to landowners. And some champions of property rights who oppose this law make a disingenuous argument: They are for intruding on property rights to excise billboards or signs that a landowner approves but the city decides deface the landscape. Yet they are against intruding on property rights to excise graffiti, which by definition is defacement of property that its owner hasn't approved.
As for artistic license, graffiti indicates several threats to public safety: trespass and vandalism, at least; drug- and gang-related crimes, at worst. Leaving graffiti be is an invitation to repeat them. PROPOSED STATE CODE RE GRAFFITI
Authority to remove or repair the defacement of buildings, walls, fences and other structures. The governing body of every county, city and town may, by ordinance, undertake or contract for the removal or repair of the defacement of any public building, wall, fence or other structure or any private building, wall, fence or structure that is visible from any public right of way. Prior to such removal, the government body shall seek the written permission of the property owner; should the property owner fail to provide such permission within 10 days, the governing body shall prominently post the affected property with a notice regarding the impending action. Within five days after so posting the property, if no response has been received from the property owner, the governing body may undertake the removal or repair of the defacement. All such removal or repair shall be at the expense of the county, city or town. by CNB