Two dozen businesses in uptown Port Alberni are cleaning up this week after someone vandalized the area with graffiti.
“At least half of the uptown merchants have been hit,” Uptown Merchants Association president Kevin Wright said.
The volume is too great for the four graffiti busting kits the association bought last May, he said: the kits are out of the paint cleaner, and Wright estimates they will need 20–30 more cans —at a cost of about $10 per can—to clean up everything that was tagged last week.
“Because of the scope and magnitude that’s been hit…we’re going to have to have a concerted effort to paint and go back and fix this.”
Wright was especially disappointed that the former post office building on Argyle Street—recently purchased by local investors—was hit.
“We have a new investor come in and buy the Canada Post building, they want to do something new and they get hit with this,” he said.
Wright said the attack was frustrating. “I’m an artist and I appreciate a good graffiti artist. Just because someone may be talented doesn’t mean they can take someone else’s property to showcase their work.
“In reality it’s just a selfish act.”
A police report was filed and the city is also involved, Wright said.
Previous councils have looked at creating anti-graffiti bylaws but ultimately felt federal penalties are sufficient, city economic development manager Pat Deakin said.
“It is a criminal act and there are provisions federally to either sentence or fine the individual, or both,” he said.
The previous council made a commitment to restock the graffiti-busting kits the Uptown Merchants Association and another business bought a year ago following another spate of graffiti.
“The second best practice is to get rid of the graffiti as fast as possible so the vandal doesn’t enjoy any notoriety,” Deakin said.
Council reaffirmed their commitment this week to replacing supplies in the graffiti kits, Deakin said.
“The mayor mused maybe what council could do was look at the community investment fund for a donation to a local community group in exchange for elbow grease.”
Wright is also looking for donations of white latex paint. For more information he can be reached at 778-421-3000.
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