It’s scrawled across Renton. On underpass walls, buildings, signs, fences, trails and trees. It costs the city and private property owners thousands of dollars and hours of cleaning. It is graffiti, and city officials are determined to wipe it out.

The Graffiti Control Ordinance passed by the City Council at Monday night’s meeting should help. When this ordinance goes into effect in early January, city officials will be better equipped not only to remove graffiti but to prosecute graffiti artists and reduce the damages inflicted on property owners.

“It very clearly says it’s a crime, and we’re sending you a message today that it’s unlawful,” city spokeswoman Preeti Shridhar says of the ordinance. “Also the message is that we don’t want to tolerate this and we don’t want to tolerate people who do graffiti.”

The ordinance is the result of a graffiti task force Mayor Denis Law created this spring. The task force is made up of several city departments, including the Community Services Department, Police Department, Public Works and the Department of Community and Economic Development.

Many of these departments have been dealing with graffiti for years, but Shridhar says the formation of the task force is the first time the city has taken a “consolidated, coordinated and focused approach” to the vandalism problem.

Jennifer Henning says there’s no doubt graffiti is a problem in Renton. Henning is planning manager for Renton’s Department of Community and Economic Development.

“It’s gone from being somewhat annoying to almost an epidemic here in the city,” she says.

City staff has processed 194 graffiti reports this year. Henning says most these reports were collected in late spring, when the city began tracking graffiti.

Many of these reports come from the Greater Hilands Shopping Center on Northeast Sunset Boulevard. Graffiti is a constant problem at that center, says Kwan Lui, controller for Viet-Wah Asian Food Market.

“It’s been ongoing,” he says. “Since the moment you clean it up, sometime down the road you see more graffiti again.”

The center’s landlord pays for the graffiti removal, but Lui says some of the clean-up cost trickles down to tenants. Lui suspects some of the writing that has covered Viet-Wah’s windows and walls is gang-related. But he doesn’t spend much time reading the scribbles. He just wants the vandalism to stop.

The reports detailing the graffiti at Viet-Wah and other Renton locations document all kinds of tags, Henning says.

“Some of it’s kids expressing themselves, some of it’s gangs,” she says. “There’s no way to say it’s any one kind. Some of it might be considered art. However, it’s all illegal.”

Much of Renton’s graffiti is gang related. According to Renton police, gang graffiti in Renton doubled from February to August. Henning says the Police Department’s gang specialist estimated last spring that the the city houses 40 gangs.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, graffiti is a $13 billion-a-year problem. Shridhar says city staff has yet to determine how many annual public dollars go toward graffiti clean-up. But she knows the dollars are in the thousands. And graffiti doesn’t cause only monetary problems. City staff says it also diminishes the perception of safety and invites additional unwanted behavior.

Shridhar calls the new ordinance a “major step” in the city’s fight against graffiti.

Inspired by measures drafted by several neighboring cities, Renton’s ordinance allows the city to better prosecute graffiti offenders. But it also helps graffiti’s victims, by authorizing the city to use public funds to remove graffiti on private property.

Under the city’s current code, property owners are responsible for removing graffiti on their properties. Otherwise they are subject to code-compliance sanctions.

“The penalties are stiffer for the people victimized than the person doing graffiti,” Henning says.

Graffiti-removal kits will help wipe tags off private property. Shridhar says the city will begin distributing these kits after the first of the year. The kits are part of the ordinance’s public rollout. Also included in that rollout: fliers, posters, door hangers and the formation of graffiti work parties.

City staff also plans to partner with local businesses to combat graffiti. And city staff will continue installing cameras in the city’s most-tagged spots. Cameras started going up in these spots this fall. The cameras were purchased with help from a $6,000 grant from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs Gang Graffiti and Tagging Abatement program.

City staff says ignoring graffiti simply invites more graffiti. That’s why staffers try to clean up tags within 48 hours.

“If it’s not cleaned up it sends the signal that it’s tolerated,” Henning says.

Toleration is not the signal the City of Renton wants to send.

“We really want to send the message that this is something we don’t want in our community,” Henning says.

Graffiti ordinance

Renton City Council passed a Graffiti Control Ordinance Monday night. When it goes into effect in early January, this ordinance:

• Makes it illegal to possess graffiti paraphernalia with the intention of using it to deface public or private property.

• Allows the court to order those caught for graffiti to pay damages to the victim, who could be the City of Renton.

• Allows public funds to be used for graffiti removal.

• Allows the city to assign up to a $5,000 liability to the parent of a minor who commits graffiti.

• Authorizes the city to offer up to a $300 reward for information leading to the identification and apprehension of any person who commits graffiti.

If you see graffiti in progress, call 911. To report other graffiti, call the city’s graffiti hotline at 425-430-7373.