The City of Burnaby wants to keep spraypaint and felt pens out of the hands of vandals by restricting access to products that can be used for graffiti.
On Monday, council approved recommendations to submit a resolution to the Lower Mainland Local Government Association and the Union of B.C. Municipalities, which would regulate where retailers can display such products. The report noted that, in most instances of graffiti, the products were openly displayed on shelves and were stolen by the vandals.
“About a year and a half ago, we had reports around the city that there were several instances of vandalism – graffiti etching – which meant people were using acid to damage storefront windows,” said Coun. Pietro Calendino, “which is not easily reparable and it forces the business owners to replace the whole window or door units.”
After a rash of acid-based tagging in late 2013 and early 2014, Calendino said the city’s graffiti coordinator and Burnaby RCMP reviewed the visibility of graffiti products at arts and crafts stores throughout the city and found one store that openly displayed these products. The manager voluntarily removed the products from the shelves, and while it’s unclear if the vandals acquired the products from that store, Calendino said police later reported that incidents of graffiti have decreased considerably.
Despite the compliance of stores, the city wants regulations in place to ensure that products used for graffiti are kept under lock and key.
Mayor Derek Corrigan questioned why the city couldn’t simply ask the province directly to consider such regulations rather than go through resolutions.
“I think that we can make the request as an individual municipality and ask them to consider that without us going through all that process, and then if it’s rejected, we can go through the process with the UBCM,” said Corrigan.
Council voted to amend the item, authorizing staff to prepare the resolutions and submit a request to the B.C. government.
