Graffiti taking a bite out of bottom lines for businesses, home sellers

Graffiti is all over buildings, highway signs, telephone poles and even community mailboxes across Newfoundland's northeast Avalon Peninsula.

The problem is especially bad in downtown St. John's, with tags defacing businesses, laneways and retaining walls.

But it's not just a downtown St. John's problem.

It's spread to the suburbs, too, marring the water tower that marks the skyline in Paradise, and overpasses and vacant buildings in Mount Pearl.

WATCH | The Scrub Squad does its best to keep buildings clean:

Graffiti is making a mess of St. Johns. The Scrub Squad is here to clean it up

2 months ago

Duration 3:10

It seems theyre everywhere you look in St. Johns graffiti tags marking up businesses, street signs even murals and other public artworks. Now removing graffiti from businesses has turned into a business for two young men.

In the last year, the Newfoundland Embassy Pub and Eatery, in the heart of downtown St. John's, has been hit three times, says co-owner Niall Hickey.

There's a blue heart etched on the orange cupboard. Previously a black line was painted all across the pub's front, and then there's the brand new steel door, now discoloured on the bottom.

"The varnish that was used took off the steel paint," he said, "so that's got to be fixed too now."

For mom and pop shops like Hickey's, graffiti is an expensive problem.

"Say I get a graffiti removal done in the front of my building there goes my full day profits, 100 per cent," he said. "It's a tough pill to swallow," said Hickey.

It's not just an annoyance for business owners, but it's bugging people living downtown, like Anna Murphy.

A retaining wall near her home has been defaced multiple times, and she's considering taking matters into her own hands.

"I was so tired of seeing graffiti just like around my house, I was, like, going to go get paint and just, like, paint something myself just to kind of make it prettier. It was driving me bananas," Murphy said.

Murphy's partner, Colin Morgan both of them are real estate agents said vandalism makes a neighbourhood feel unsafe and can affect the price some will get when they sell their home.

"Visually, curb appeal is huge when it comes to your home. If you're in an area that seems like it's being vandalized, like, that definitely affects your value," said Morgan.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary started cracking down on graffiti last year, creating a tipline. Police say they made seven arrests in 2023 for property damage involving spray paint.

"It's a property crime. It's no different under the Criminal Code if somebody, you know,breaks out your windows, beats up your car," said James Cadigan, the RNC's media relations officer.

Cadigan says the RNC has a property crime section that investigates the people behind the graffiti tags seen over and over again so they can hold someone accountable.

"I really ache for the small businesses in our community who are, you know, trying to get by day by day and then spending a day's revenue to clean up spray paint off the windows of their business to try and make the next day worthwhile," he said.

"It can be devastating. It could be a closure of a small business. It could be somebody who can put groceries in their fridge the next day."

Gaylynne Gulliver,the Downtown St. John's Business Commission's marketing and special events co-ordinator says her organization has teamed up with police to fight the problem.

There are three ways to halt graffiti, she said: "Record, report, remove."

Gulliver suggests taking a picture of vandalism and sending it to the police.

"Even if you don't think that they're coming, they need to have it. It helps build their cases for future events," she said. It will also show up in crime statistics, which helps in allocating resources.

"The final thing is the best thing you can do. As quickly as you can, remove it, because the graffiti it proliferates."

Scrub Squad washes away crime

For the last year and a half, Jack Boland, 16, and Jacob Sheppard, 19 calling themselves the Scrub Squad have been doing their best to do just that.

The duo started a property maintenance business and spend their time scouring away scribblings across the St. John's metro area.

"We use our sensitive surface chemicals and basically we apply them to the window and it loosens up all the paint, and then we come at it with some water and a rag or a cloth, or whatever, and then it just wipes right off," Sheppard told CBC News.

There's no shortage of business for the Scrub Squad, who charge up to $2,000 for removal.

"There's a steady demand for it and it never ceases. Even in the winter, people are still calling us because these people kind of don't stop," Boland said.

They're also seen the same tags show up again and again.

"Whenever we remove something off of a building, it's back again," said Boland.

Repeat offenders can mean more business for the Scrub Squad, but if a freshly cleaned storefront gets hit with tags again within a week, Boland says they'll come back and take care of the new graffiti for free.

"If I owned a property downtown, I would be kind of rotted if it got tagged over and over again," said Boland.

Even the provincial government feels that efforts to clean graffiti from overpasses along highways are largely futile.

In a statement, Transportation Department spokesperson Maria Browne wouldn't say how often it cleans up graffiti along highways.

"Unfortunately, cleanup efforts do not last long. As an example, in 2023, crew members removed graffiti on the overpasses during the Outer Ring Road cleanup and it returned within a few days," reads the statement.

Gulliver says all the graffiti that's downtown and across the major municipalities across the northeast Avalon gives a bad impression to tourists and makes the place look unkept and uncared for.

Police arrests have made a difference, she said, and Hickey has found something that helps a little too.

"Cameras outside deter people a lot, and brighter lights also help, and even putting the 'Smile, You're On Camera' signs around, that does deter them a lot too."

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