Graffiti Advisory Board

Advising the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the Graffiti Advisory Board was established to review and evaluate the problem of graffiti in San Francisco neighborhoods and the downtown area. The Advisory Board advises the Board and the Mayor about graffiti enforcement, cleanup, and prevention strategies. The Board prepares and submits a report every six months on graffiti as it affects neighborhoods and downtown San Francisco. The Board is a 25member advisory committee including a representative for the Mayor and each of San Franciscos 11 Supervisorial Districts, seven city agencies, and one representative for each of the following stakeholders: youth groups involved in graffiti diversion, non -profit organizations related to the Citys beautification, businesses, private or arts schools, and the contracting agency for MUNI shelters. Members of the Graffiti Advisory Board are appointed by the Mayor and Board of Supervisors and meet on the second Thursday of every month at 3:30 p.m. (except during the months of July and December) Seven seats were absent during the January 13, 2011 meeting. Arguing that graffiti was increasing, Leonid Nakhodkin (Seat 2) suggested the Graffiti Board change their bylaws so the Board could be more effective. In response, the Chair stated that the Board should take action by beginning to implement their strategic plan. Blight includes everything from dead or decaying trees, weeds, and litter to unpainted buildings, deteriorating or defaced buildings, and items in an outdoor area which are not usually stored outdoors. Because the City cannot cover the costs to remove blight from private properties, the burden falls to private property owners to either clean up the blight or face a fine from the City. The Chair reported that notices posted for Blight had increased. For example, 43 Blight Ordinance notices were posted in November 2010, and 85 notices were posted in December 2010. From July through December 2010, 334 blight notices were posted compared to 2009 where only 291 notices were posted. There was a 14% decrease in public property graffiti. The Chair also reported that DPW is performing extensive public outreach around illegal dumping and that outreach staff will be going door to door in the Bayview distributing an informational mailer to all residences. Nafiseh Lindberg (Seat 3) told the Board that committee members and the Chair need to start attending Education Committee meetings because nothing was getting accomplished. Joe Padilla (RecPark)

stated the Recreation and Parks Department will roll out a graffiti abatement program for the Parks that is similar to DPWs Graffiti Watch. The District Attorneys Office reported that they do not have any pending rewards for the graffiti reward program. Four seats were absent during the February 10, 2011 meeting. Nafiseh Lindberg (Seat 3) suggested reaching out to a private property owner whose business was removing graffiti on their own. On January 25th, Supervisor Carmen Chu honored Officer Christopher Putz for his work on the Graffiti Advisory Board. Mayoral Appointee Paula Mulhall was featured on NBC for her work to abate graffiti around San Francisco. During this meeting, the Board discussed reaching out to real estate professionals to raise awareness around graffiti by having them sign the pledge or abate graffiti. Rebecca Delgado-Rottman mentioned how the Academy of Art has worked with their student and resident population to eradicate graffiti and noted that the Academy of Art has a zerotolerance policy. The Chair reported 97 notices of blight in January 2011, which were 36 more than the number of blight notices posted in January 2010. Specifically, public property graffiti showed a decrease, and there were numerous recent reports of corporate sidewalk graffiti. DPW and the City Attorney demanded that companies remove the graffiti immediately, and the SF Examiner ran an article about the incident. Ten seats were absent during the March 10, 2011 meeting. Alex Popovics (Got Graffiti?) announced that the Board of Supervisors amended the New Rack Ordinance decreasing the amount of time granted to publishers to clean up blighted news racks. Leonid Nakhodkin (Seat 3) brought up the issue of flyers on light poles and that this type of public noticing can be considered blight. John Bass (Global Green) announced a product made from recycled paintthat can be used as a graffiti cover. David Crommie (SF Beautiful) announced that Nino Parker (Seat 12) received a commendation from the Board of Supervisors for his work abating graffiti. The Board watched a presentation from the Deputy Director of 311 entitled, 311 Overview of Graffiti Related Services. There is a wide range of types of graffiti issues 311 addresses by working closely with DPW. 53 Blight notices were posted in February 2011, which is twice as many as February 2010. 503 blight notices were posted from July 1, 2010 to February 1, 2011, which is a 31% increase. Twelve seats were absent during the April 14, 2011 meeting. David

Burke (DA) presented information on the Neighborhood Court, which was seeking volunteer court adjudicators to hear cases and decide the best ways to resolve them. Organized by the District Attorneys Office, Community Courts handle adult offenders charged with misdemeanor crimes, including graffiti cases and other quality of life crimes. The Board also listened to an overview of proposed AT&T cable utility boxes. The SF Planning Department was seeking an exemption from CEQA to place 726 cabinets on San Francisco sidewalks. The boxes are four feet tall and would sit on the sidewalk obstructing the public right of way. The Board recommended that the boxes be installed underground because they are graffiti magnets. Vice-Chair John Bitoff made a motion that the Graffiti Advisory Board send a letter to the Board of Supervisors to petition the Department of Public Works to mandate that at minimum, AT&T uses an antigraffiti coating on all of the newly installed boxes. 2,338 work orders for graffiti on public property were generated in the month of March 2011. 666 notices were posted for graffiti on private property in March 2011. Nino Parker (Seat 12): It might be a good idea to connect these graffiti coating vendors with our StreetSmARTs murals to get them to do a product demonstration and coat the murals. 15 seats were absent and 10 present during the May 12, 2011 meeting. Three vendors spoke at the meeting about their graffiti products. 103 blight reports were approved by the Board of Supervisors recently to recover costs from private property owners for graffiti abatement under the Blight Ordinance. According to StreetSmART, all 20 murals for this fiscal year were identified and are in development. 14 seats were absent and 11 present during the June 9, 2011 meeting. A Blight presentation was made to the Board of Supervisors on June 7th, 2011. The Board members watched a 15 minute video excerpt from the June 7th BOS meeting where representatives from DPW asked the Board for permission to put liens on private property owners who had not paid for the abatement of blight and graffiti from their property. The Board also discussed the efficacy of the Graffiti Advisory Board and ideas for future policy directions. Members discussed the positive benefits from the meetings, including learning more about the issues of graffiti vandalism and what the city is doing about it. The Chair emailed the group about attendance, hoping they could get 100% of the members present at each meeting. Letters went out in May to ask all City Departments and community partners to

report graffiti abatement costs. The current total costs are most likely much higher than $22 million.