This past January, the Ward 6 Council Office, with Council members Steve Kozachik, Karin Ulich, TPD officers, and neighborhood association leaders met to address the issue of graffiti in Tucson. Working groups were formed to study various aspects of the problem, including enforcement, where taggers obtain supplies, how other cities deal with the issue, etc. This group will be ongoing, with the next meeting on Saturday, March 31st 2012, 1:30pm at the Ward 6 office. Feel free to attend- this is an issue citywide, not just midtown.

At the February 7th City Council Study Session, the issue was addressed, with presentations by the Police Chief, City Manager, City Attorney, Transportation Director, Neighborhood Service Network members, and comments by the Council Members. A link to the video from that meeting is here. http://tinyurl.com/graffiti-abatement-discussion

A follow up report will be presented to the City Council in 60-90 days. Please consider getting involved in this issue with your neighborhood, business, etc. Just to provide an idea of the problem magnitude in Tucson- in 2010, there were 38,000 reported incidents. This number doubled in 2011 to 76,000. Is this a problem for Tucson? Home values, cost to home/business owners, perception of our city by visitors, are all affected. Please step up and get involved!