Anti-Graffiti web site for Houston

[editor]

COUNCIL MEMBER SUE LOVELL ANNOUNCES CITY OF HOUSTON GRAFFITI WEBSITE

New site provides information and resources on fighting graffiti

HOUSTON, TEXAS ─ The City of Houston has debuted a new website for citizens and organizations that want to fight graffiti in their neighborhoods. Developed by Vice Mayor Pro-Tem and At-Large City Council Member Sue Lovell, a leading voice on the graffiti issue, the site provides information on resources for abating, or painting over, graffiti. The site, www.houstontx.gov/graffiti, also has information on government agencies and groups that provide positive alternatives to graffiti.

"I hope citizens who are concerned about graffiti will use our site," Vice Mayor Pro-Tem Lovell says. "Citizens should keep looking to the site as information is updated and new information is added."

The site includes an interactive section, which invites citizens with ideas about dealing with graffiti to leave messages. That information is sent to staff in Vice Mayor Pro-Tem's office.

The main section of the site features information, complete with contact phone numbers and links, to City of Houston departments, other governmental agencies, and community organizations that work to abate graffiti. These city departments include 311, General Services Department, Public Works and Engineering Department, Houston Parks and Recreation Department, Solid Waste Department's Environmental Service Center, Houston Police Department, HPD Neighborhood Protection Corps, and the Mayor's Anti-Gang Task Force. Other governmental agencies include Harris County and the Texas Department of Transportation. Community organizations include Metro, the East End Management District, Crime Stoppers Houston, Keep Houston Beautiful, and Keep America Beautiful.

"We want organizations that work to fight graffiti and also those that work with young people involved with graffiti to use the site," says Vice Mayor Pro-Tem Lovell. "I also want to encourage citizens to share their success stories and news of problems in their neighborhoods with us through www.houstontx.gov/graffiti."

The City of Houston spends more than $1 million on graffiti abatement, as Vice Mayor Pro-Tem Lovell points out. That figure doesn't even include the money spent by other government entities and organizations as well as individual citizens and business owners, who paint over graffiti on their residences and businesses themselves.

As Vice Mayor Pro-Tem Lovell wrote in a Houston Chronicle op-ed published in January, "We all know that money and resources are increasingly scarce in the current economic climate. This is the case even in Houston, where we are in better shape than many other cities in the United States. We will all have to make choices. Abating graffiti on structures uses valuable resources that can be spent elsewhere-on parks, street repairs, police and fire protection, the arts, programs for children, and many other critical areas."

For more information, citizens may contact the office of Vice Mayor Pro-Tem and City Council Member Sue Lovell at 832.393.3013 or by e-mail at atlarge2@cityofhouston.net.