Portland businesses getting serious about graffiti

PORTLAND – Downtown businesses are stepping up efforts to cut down on graffiti, saying it makes the area less welcoming to shoppers and hurts the bottom line.

Property owners and retailers say graffiti are a pervasive problem that can drive commerce to the Maine Mall and are a black eye for a city aspiring to be a national tourism destination.

A move is under way to promote a three-point plan that involves education, prevention and enforcement to cut down on graffiti.

City officials and Portland’s Downtown District want property owners to make their buildings less inviting to vandals, document any graffiti and immediately report it to police, and remove the graffiti as soon as possible.

“The small stuff does matter,” said Janis Beitzer, executive director at Portland’s Downtown District. “It’s been proven time and again.”

Beitzer, who recently came to Maine after running the business-improvement district in Lancaster, Pa., keyed on Portland’s graffiti when she came to interview for the job.

Beitzer is a believer in what urban experts call the “Fixing Broken Windows” thesis, named after a 1996 book by the same name. The book expanded on 1980s research that made a strong connection between disorder and urban decay, and how controlling disorderly behavior in public places can lead to a drop in crime.

Graffiti haven’t become a big problem in Bangor, where police got complaints perhaps a few times in recent months, Deputy Chief Peter Arno of the Bangor Police Department said Tuesday.

“We don’t have that yet and hopefully we won’t,” Arno said about having a widespread graffiti problem.

Graffiti are more prevalent on the pillars and support structures underneath the bridges that span the Penobscot River, he said, although the department does get complaints about graffiti on churches or other buildings from time to time.

While Portland doesn’t appear to have the profusion of gang- or drug-related graffiti that plague some major cities, merchants say there’s a link between graffiti and trash, public drunkenness and other urban woes that can be seen downtown. When a building is defaced and not restored, they say, it invites other undesirable behavior by sending a message that no one is in charge.

“It looks like your building is uncared for,” said Penelope Carson, who owns five downtown buildings and spends roughly $2,000 a year to have them cleaned of graffiti.

Rob Rohr, general manager of The Kitchen sandwich, was angry when he saw the word “LEARN” painted along the brick entryway when he came to work one morning early last month. He said most Congress Street property owners have experienced graffiti.

To make his point, Rohr conducted a quick walking tour of Congress Street. Along the way, he pointed to numerous examples of existing graffiti – “FNORD,” “FUSE,” “NOC,” and “SEPT” among them – as well as walls that had been sandblasted or repainted.

Rohr said cleaning graffiti is a business cost, and that many downtown buildings are made from old, unsealed bricks that require special cleaning solutions to prevent damage to the surface or mortar. Cleaning the graffiti from The Kitchen will cost around $500, Rohr estimated.

City officials say another way to cut down on graffiti is for police and prosecutors to send a message that people who are caught defacing property will be charged with a crime.