Downtown Graffiti Busters

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The war against unwanted graffiti and tags on our downtown Lethbridge buildings and infrastructure is probably never going to be won, however we are successfully winning the battles. The most effective deterent is to remove tags as quickly as they appear. If they are left up too long, other vandals add their tags ... and so on, and so on. Downtown Montreal is an excellent example of a tagging problem that was left unchecked and is now so far out-of-control that it would take millions of dollars to remove it. Almost every square inch of public infrastructure has been hit with random tags and graffiti.

The City of Lethbridge is fully aware of the consequences of unchecked vandalism and have stepped up their commitment to removing tags from vandalized public property. They have also expanded the initiative to clean up buildings in the downtown core as part of the 'Heart of Our City' Master Plan implementation.

The process to remove unwanted graffiti and tags from our downtown buildings is quite simple. The area that has been hit is treated with a biodegradable 'Graffiti Remover' solution - www.graffitisolutions.com. The solution is left on for approximately 10-20 minutes and then is washed off using a pressure washer. On the other hand, the cost of removal can be significant. Regardless of the cost, it's an important program that needs to built into the budget of the municipality and business revitalization zone (BRZ).

This removal process is used on a variety of surfaces (stucco, brick, metal, etc.). We consult with our Main Street Project architect, Robert Hirano, when dealing with certain types of historic, low-fired, brick surfaces. In those cases, hand-scrubbing techniques are employed in order to minimize any damage to the surface of the bricks.

For the past three years, the Downtown Lethbridge BRZ has partnered with Streets Alive to identify and remove graffiti and tags from vandalized downtown buildings. The BRZ supplies Streets Alive with funding for paint, solvent, brushes, etc. Streets Alive volunteers take regular tours of the downtown core and remove tags and graffiti throughout the year.

Together with the help of Streets Alive, City of Lethbridge and the Lethbridge Regional Police Downtown Lethbridge Beat Patrol, we have been able to keep a tight lid on the issue.

We've sent a strong message to vandals that we care about our downtown and community and we're not going to tolerate unwanted graffiti and tags.