Tauranga City Council is seeking public support for the street art programmes that are successfully replacing graffiti and tagging in public spaces.
Since the council began encouraging street art as opposed to graffiti in 2009, graffiti and tagging has decreased in the city, as has the amount of public money required to clean it up.
Owen Dippie's Girl with a Pearl Earring on the wall of Kale Print on Cameron Road.
Before the new graffiti removal contract was established in 2009, Council paid more than $200,000 a year on graffiti removal, with the cost peaking at just over $269,000 in the 2008/2009 financial year.
From 2009 – 2013 there have been a number of successful ‘aerosol art' projects in Tauranga.
Council says they have had minimal or no vandalism, the local community supports the projects and the projects involved local youth.
This has lead on to private businesses and individuals supporting large scale street art projects such as the Owen Dippie 'Larger than Life” works located in the heart of Tauranga City Centre among others. It also resulted in reduced costs for graffiti removal, as the volume of tagging decreased.
City council reports it is also working with Tauranga aerosol artists to establish suitable locations where they can legally create artwork and showcase their talents.
The council discovered providing such places will encourage youth to create positive, colourful images in the community, where they will gain respect and recognition from others, instead of committing a crime where the whole community suffers.
Tauranga City Council is currently seeking public feedback on the issue of graffiti vandalism and legal street art in Tauranga. To have a say click here.
Graffiti removal costs
2009/2010 $175K
2010/2011 $172K
2011/2012 $179K
2012/2013 $167K
2013/2014 $153K
Graffiti removal stats
2009/2010 12886 tags
2010/2011 9486 tags
2011/2012 7911 tags
2012/2013 5039 tags
2013/2014 3424 tags
4 comments
Um, a little dishonest
Posted on 08-08-2014 15:31 | By Murray.Guy
Tauranga City Council has been using income from the Parking Account for this purpose. Who knows, perhaps a few are starting to question the integrity of this syphoning off of funds, BUT we do know street art DOES get attacked. For the City Council to say, they've had minimal or no vandalism' is a little short on the truth. The Greerton Library 'street art' wall lasted a very short time as did the extensive works below the Otamataha cemetery &others. The article quotes the graffiti costs to ratepayers yet their is NO graph showing how much has been spend on graffiti art? A comparison to comparable cities might also be of value. I suspect somebody is looking to increase the syphon size!
some aerosol defaced a fence or two
Posted on 08-08-2014 16:05 | By Annalist
I've seen lots of graffiti around still. Mostly the mindless kind of tags. I hope the council gets full restitution from anyone caught and prosecuted. But I don't have a lot of confidence in the cops to chase anything that doesn't involve speed cameras. When it comes to law and order it should be zero tolerance instead of the weak-kneed response we seem to see.
Huh
Posted on 08-08-2014 19:10 | By Capt_Kaveman
graffiti removal contract!!!! would it not be better spent having night owls catching these vandals, at that price you could have 3 full time night watches and still have money left over
Removal costs
Posted on 09-08-2014 09:26 | By Johnney
The removal costs are somewhat disproportionate to the levels of tagging. The tags have substantially reduced. We had a price of $13.50 to fix a tag, now it's near $45 per tag. Something is not adding up!!!!!! Or the contractor is a very happy person.
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