Each year, about one thousand people call the Ottawa city by-law services to denounce the presence of graffiti. These are then removed : sometimes at the cost of beautiful artwork.
A 15-meter tall gun, but to promote peace. The weapon, painted on a wall of the french-speaking centre Patro d’Ottawa who commissioned the work, is not what it seems: looking closer, you notice it actually being made of toys.
Through this original piece, the artist Alejandro Hugo Dorda Mev sends a clear message: the innocence of children is stronger than automated weapons. But the community didn’t had a long time to appreciate his work. Some Ottawa citizens, offended by the depiction of a weapon, called the 311 city services. 48 hours later, the painting was hidden by a big piece of cloth, before being painted over.
The incident, which occurred in 2011, is still a clear example of the previous municipal government’s policy inciting people to signal graffiti to public services, according to criminologist Deborah Landry.
“The consequence is that you have people calling in to check on things that aren’t graffiti at all !”, she says, noting that chalk drawings by children were reported as graffiti by some inhabitants.
The educational campaign of the previous city government under mayor Larry O’Brien seems to have long term effects. Open data of Ottawa city services show that in 2015, 1,049 people called the 311 line to report illegal graffiti. Every year, the Rideau-Vanier has the highest number of incidents reported.
311 Graffiti complaints : The map shows the calls made to Ottawa city services to report graffiti in 2015, broken down by ward.
source : City of Ottawa open data site
But the strategy didn’t help to reduce graffiti, according to Landry.
“What we have now in the city is a whole bunch of patches of different color of paint over graffiti”, she said. “This makes a lovely base for another graffiti take!”
The researcher adds that the city is trying to stop something that has been done since Pompei. “We’ve always written on walls and this is nothing new. We live in a culture that tags everything with logos.”
Graffiti related 311 calls on the decrease
But the incoming 311 calls actually cost money. Landry said, “each report ranges between 90$ and 300$, for every time somebody responds to a 311 call and deals with it.”
“I think that the mayor Jim Watson knows that, and that he is not trying to encourage people to respond to something as benign as graffiti.”
The number of 311 calls related to graffiti has been decreasing since the election of Jim Watson in 2010, dropping by 33%, an analysis of city of Ottawa open data shows.
source : City of Ottawa open data site
Patrick McCormack, general manager at House of Paint, agrees that the general attitude changed about graffiti in municipal services and that Jim Watson puts a bit more value on art. “But we are still looking for the city to fulfill its commitment to the artists.”
House of Paint organizes a festival that celebrates hip-hop culture each year and collaborates with the city on the Paint It Up program, which enables young people to legally paint murals. But McCormack thinks Ottawa could do more for graffiti artists:
“Some artists want more legal space to practice their art”, he said. “They don’t want to go over a piece that someone else did two weeks ago.”
Ottawa has three walls where artists can freely paint without breaking the law. Gatineau, on the other hand, offers 28.
McCormack agrees that he wouldn’t want someone to paint on his garage without his authorization. For him, each case is different and should be resolved through collaboration. A point of view Landry shares.
“The focus should be: ‘how do we live together a bit more peacefully, with a bit more understanding amongst the communities?’”, she said. “We don’t get that through law, we get that through talking.”