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The Graffiti Abatement Program |
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What is the City doing about Graffiti?
The Program
New Graffiti Bylaw
Coordinated Enforcement Plan
Public Education Campaigns
Graffiti is a community concern - Get Involved!
The Program
The Graffiti Abatement Program uses a five-pronged approach that combines Leadership, Prevention, Eradication, Enforcement, and Community Empowerment strategies/initiatives. The program focuses on coordinating actions of community groups and public agencies to prevent the spread of graffiti vandalism through enforcement, public education/awareness, and promotion of City-sponsored mural programs.
New Graffiti Bylaw
The City of Toronto has introduced a new Graffiti Bylaw (Municipal Code, Chapter 485) to guide City staff in preventing and enforcing the removal of graffiti effectively and immediately. Graffiti is defined in the new Graffiti Bylaw as:
"One or more letters, symbols, figures, etching, scratches, inscriptions, stains, or other markings that disfigure or deface a structure or thing, howsoever made or otherwise affixed on the structure or thing, but, for greater certainty, does not include an art mural". |
Coordinated Enforcement Plan
The Graffiti Abatement Program has launched a determined, aggressive and integrated enforcement plan to effectively wipe out graffiti. This often entails coordinating the actions of municipal departments, agencies, boards and commissions along with the community at large.
- City staff will remove graffiti on city owned buildings, overpasses, bridges, and public parks. Staff will try to quickly remove any hate or gang-related graffiti within a 24-hour period and all other graffiti within a 72-hour period to prevent further proliferation.
- Using a coordinated abatement approach, the Clean City team is conducting large-scale graffiti clean-up campaigns in certain areas across the City of Toronto. These areas have been identified as those most visible to the public and are persistently experiencing problems of littering and dumping of refuse, graffiti, postering, long grass and weeds, vending, A-frames, and outdoor displays and marketing on private and public property.
- Municipal Licensing and Standards Division staff routinely enforce municipal codes and bylaws associated with the upkeep of various property standards. They will respond to complaints of graffiti infractions by directing the area inspector to visit the subject property and take appropriate action on these violations. You may place your complaints about graffiti in your neighbourhood with the Graffiti Abatement Program Staff at 311, or with the Municipal Licensing and Standards District Office in your area.
- Toronto Police Services has also developed a Graffiti Eradication Program to combat graffiti, reduce crime, fear and disorder, and work toward urban beautification. City by-law officers will target graffiti-prone areas in the city and where necessary, coordinate with Toronto Police Services to achieve successful enforcement. To report hate, gang-related, or graffiti vandalism, call Toronto Police Services at 416-808-2222.
To report graffiti, call 311 |
Public Education Campaigns
Staff are conducting a number of public outreach campaigns to educate property owners, students, and the general public about the negative effects of illegal graffiti and the importance of their prevention and quick removal.
Graffiti is a community concern - Get Involved!
It is important that everyone do their part in keeping both public and private properties free of graffiti in order to help the City of Toronto and its communities stay clean and beautiful. Elimination of graffiti from walls, fences and other structures are prime ways for maintaining community cleanliness and beauty.
Negative Effects of Graffiti :
- Poses a risk to the health, safety and welfare of a community.
- Promotes a perception in the community that laws protecting public and private property can be disregarded with impunity.
- Fosters a sense of disrespect for private property that may result in increasing crime, community degradation and urban blight.
- Creates a nuisance that can adversely affect property values, business opportunities and the enjoyment of community life.
City staff are working closely with property owners, community groups and local BIAs to coordinate community efforts that effectively deal with graffiti.
- City staff will assist owners with removing graffiti from their property and will use enforcement measures only as a last resort. When City staff enforces compliance with the bylaw they will try to provide owners with as many ways as possible to comply.
- Whenever possible, City staff are encouraging and supporting the formation of community based groups, such as "adopt an area", and coordinating community-organized paint-outs and other graffiti abatement initiatives.
- Murals are an effective means of deterring graffiti from appearing on structures. The murals program is a legal alternative for graffiti artists that promotes positive artistic expression, and the murals themselves provide a facade that tends to be left untouched by graffiti vandals. The City currently provides funding for the Graffiti Transformation Program. For information on this mural program call 416-392-0102.
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