City Council still fighting graffiti

City Council will be discussing a new proposal this week that will strengthen the graffiti laws in Houston. The new ordinance will not only stiffen the fines on graffiti artists and retailers who sell spray paint and other graffiti tools, but it will shorten the time window for property owners to clean up graffiti on their buildings.

Under this ordinance, those who cause $1,500 or more in damage with graffiti will be charged with a felony. The fines for those who are caught defacing street and highway signs will increase (Houstonist is still amazed that people can graffiti sings over highways without getting caught). However, the direct victim of graffiti – the property owner – will get the shaft: the time window for cleaning up graffiti would decrease to 10 days (the current law gives them 30 days).

Whether its art or not, graffiti won't ever disappear totally in an urban area like ours. Too bad we can't come up with an invention that sprays paint back at the graffiti artist when they approach a building – it worked on the classic TV show Police Squad. Unfortunately, we can't find that episode, but we had to share a snippet from another episode (ah, Leslie Nielsen's golden days).