Official graffiti walls intended to reduce unwanted graffiti in neighbourhoods have had the opposite effect, Ottawa city staff has found.

Therefore, no new legal graffiti walls should added to the three that already exist, city staff recommended in a report to the city's community and protective services committee Thursday.

Legal graffiti walls

Ottawa has three legal graffiti walls:

  • George Dunbar Bridge on Bronson Avenue, near Carleton University.
  • Ottawa Technical High School on Slater Street in Centretown.
  • A skate park at the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex in Orléans.

The report recommends keeping the first two, saying they are "long established" locations where urban art communities are actively engaged in their use. Staff and police don't support a permanent exemption for the third, established as a pilot project, but have recommended a one-year extension of the project, as Orléans councillor Bob Monette does not want the wall removed.

Kevin Wylie, a manager in the public works department, said the legal walls caused graffiti to spread.

"We call it creep, graffiti creep … up along the wall where it wasn't allowed."

According to the report, graffiti prosecutions didn't decline near graffiti walls either.

"This is because graffiti is not carried out for artistic purposes," it says. "In the eyes of the vandal, graffiti must be illegal to be 'real.' "

But Wylie said murals have a different effect.

"A mural is a piece of art. And what we found in other jurisdictions is graffiti artists will respect art. You put up a nice mural and the taggers will stay away."

The report recommends making it easier to get murals approved, by allowing a city manager instead of a committee to give the OK. The committee passed the report with amendments to allow the murals even in areas where graffiti is not as serious a problem. The recommendations must go to city council for final approval.

Under a proposed program similar to successful ones in Philadelphia and Toronto, murals meeting city size, advertising and location guidelines would be allowed on:

  • Walls and other structures on private property that are not buildings.
  • Highway structures such as utility boxes, bridge underpasses and retaining walls.

In addition, the city would provide $50,000 to youth and community groups to paint murals in neighbourhoods with a high incidence of graffiti vandalism, and would be able to use money from its graffiti eradication budget to commission murals on city property.

Mike Young, whose passion is promoting graffiti murals as a way to get youth involved in the community, attended the committee meeting Thursday.

He said he doesn't buy city staff's assessment about the legal graffiti walls, but is glad they won't be painted over as staff suggested two years ago.