San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
WAIT TIME FOR CITY OF S.D. TO REMOVE GRAFFITI VARIES
Data shows average of 25 days to remove spray paint, stickers
It takes the city of San Diego nearly a month to remedy graffiti removal requests, according to city data updated Thursday, but the wait times are longer depending on the location of the vandalism.
San Diego residents submitted some 90,500 graffiti removal requests to the city’s nonemergency maintenance reporting app, Get It Done, since January 2018. The requests range from removing gang-related graffiti on walls and utility boxes to peeling off stickers from traffic signs.
“Continuous Gang related graffiti covers in-front of Lincoln high school,” one resident wrote. Another noted “They will continue crossing and overwriting (the gang names) unless it’s removed.”
“The kiwi has been tagged!” a resident in North Park reported.
“Super huge graffiti tag Eastside gang on the fence,” wrote a City Heights resident.
About 20 percent of the removal requests do not involve tagging on city property and were referred to outside agencies, such as the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System or San Diego Gas & Electric. The city took responsibility for the remaining 72,800 requests.
More than 90 percent of the city requests have been “closed” or resolved by city workers, but some 2,700 remain pending.
Although the city referred about 17,700 reports to outside agencies, residents who made the requests said they wanted to see graffiti removed from freeway overpasses, utility boxes, park signs and bus stops — regardless of the agency responsible.
Anthony Santacroce, a spokesperson for the city, said graffiti located on city property, such as a sidewalk or a street, is typically dealt with in three to seven business days.
But there can be delays when it’s unclear who’s responsible or if damage to commercial and private property isn’t outsourced to the appropriate person, he said.
Santacroce added that the graffiti abatement program was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Starting in March, several city services were put on hold or downsized to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The graffiti program was one of those services, he said.
City Heights resident James Lively said it makes sense that bureaucracy would slow down the response time for some requests, but it’s hard to understand why some reports that Lively made in his neighborhood were resolved in days or weeks, but others remained open for months or longer, he said.
“I don’t really understand how there is inconsistency,” Lively said.
According to a San Diego Union-tribune analysis, it took city workers an average of 25 days to resolve completed requests to remove or clean up spray paint, stickers and gang symbols on San Diego property.
But that average jumps to 30 days when unresolved requests are included in the mix.
Some requests have been pending for years.
City data show more than 400 requests to remedy graffiti on sidewalks, utility boxes, exterior walls, donation bins and street signs that have been marked as “in process” for more than a year.
Another two dozen have been pending for two years. About 60 percent are in City Council District 3 or District 9.
“Without looking at each specific case, I can’t answer what’s going on with every single request that’s still pending,” Santacroce said.
The city prioritizes requests in chronological order, he said, unless the graffiti is noted to be particularly offensive or poses a threat to the public.
There are typically five crews deployed each day to handle a list of graffiti reports.
“Sometimes graffiti is reported on the coast, on rocks, on the pier or on bridges,” Santacroce said. “A lot of the times, it’s hard to get to those right away and that can lead to more delays.” Response times do vary by neighborhood or district.
San Diego City Council District 3 — which represents areas including Old Town, Hillcrest, North Park, South Park, Golden Hill and downtown San Diego — sees the most graffiti removal requests. Residents there filed about 27 percent of the total submissions received by the city.
District 9 — which includes City Heights, Midcity and Southeastern San Diego neighborhoods — ranks No. 2, with about a quarter of the city’s requests.
While the two districts report an almost equal number of graffiti removal requests, data show the time it takes the city to remedy the requests differs by up to 19 days.
According to city records, San Diego workers remedy requests in District 3 in an average of 21 days.
In District 9, the city takes an average of 39 days to close graffiti removal requests — the longest average wait time among all City Council districts.
“I can’t dispute or confirm what’s going on there,” Santacroce said.
Fairmount Park resident Matt Armstrong grew so frustrated with the city’s response time, he took matters into his own hands in 2017.
Armed with a paint bucket and a brush, Armstrong goes around his neighborhood painting over graffiti at least once a week. He went out Friday to cover at least three or four sewer covers that were tagged.
“If I see graffiti, I paint it that same day,” said Armstrong, whose neighborhood falls inside the boundaries of District 9.
District 4 has the secondlongest wait time at about 23 days, followed by Districts 8, 1 and 5, which all have wait times of about 21 days.
The wait times exclude requests that are still pending.
More than 33 percent of the city’s open requests — some 900 submissions — are located in District 9 and have been pending for an average of 105 days, or about 15 weeks. District 9 neighborhoods include City Heights, Kensington-talmadge, College Area, El Cerrito, Mountain View, Southcrest and Rolando.
Data show about a quarter of pending requests are in District 3, where they have been pending for an average of 164 days, or more than five months. District 3 neighborhoods include North Park, Mission Hills, downtown San Diego, Golden Hill, University Heights and Balboa Park.
San Diego City Councilmember Chris Ward, who represents District 3, said the difference in response times indicates that the process should be reviewed.
Santacroce said the city’s graffiti supervisor will go over the oldest graffiti reports next week, to ensure some of those lengthy delays are not due to glitches in the system.