Tallinn to Press Zero Tolerance of Graffiti (8)

Published: 25.04.2012 16:49

Photo: Postimees/Scanpix

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Tallinn will clean 4,000 square meters of city property from smears and graffiti by May 15.

The citywide undertaking will take 30,000 euros from Tallinn's budget, according to Raepress.

Currently there are around 80 buildings and objects in downtown alone that need to be cleaned. Those include, for instance, the stairs and walls of Toompea viewing platforms.

District governments will also organize cleaning up of pedestrian tunnels, overpasses and facades of community and youth centers.

"The city will continue its zero-tolerance policy towards graffiti vandals," said deputy mayor of Tallinn Arvo Sarapuu, adding that each year, the cost of cleaning up graffiti reaches tens of thousands of euros.

Scrubbing private property clean will be the sole responsibility of owners. "After this campaign, surveillance in Tallinn will visibly be improved and sanctions will be on owners who do not meet their obligations," Sarapuu warned.

 

Ingrid Teesalu

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Comments (8)

  • Andrus Magi

    25.04.2012 18:41

    Tallinn to press zero tolerance of the tide coming in, the sun setting in the evening and birds singing in the morning. Good luck with that, Tallinn old friend. As I have said before, the only possible way to prevent the majority of ugly defacement in Tallinn is to designate areas for genuine street artists, like Multi Stability, to practise their discipline and to have a strictly enforced zero tolerance policy in the UNESCO Old Town only. Beyond that you are dreaming.

  • Mart Mang

    26.04.2012 00:25

    I am almost surely positive that they won't erase art. Well hopefully optomistic, yet pragmatic, right? Right??

  • Spawnie

    26.04.2012 11:45

    So owners will be fined, but authors of graffti's will not be? Where's the logic in that? I guess people should stop going to work and stay at home, spying from behind windows, just in case someone decides to create a piece of art on their building walls.

  • Reply

    26.04.2012 12:26

    This is same as requirement to clean the sidewalk next to your house! Even if other people throw garbage on it, Government expect your to pick it up and keep it clean! It is rather an amusing fact, that the person committing the crime (too harsh word?) is in fact made aware that he/she will not be the one paying for his/her sins! So he/she is free to throw his/her paint brush and other stuff where ever he/she wants to!

  • Mark.

    26.04.2012 13:19

    I don't care so much about cleaning up garbage in front of our house, but removing graffiti is expensive and time-consuming. It is unreasonable to receive a fine for this. Some buildings in Tallinn are sprayed so much that fan's could bankrupt the owners.

  • Artist

    02.05.2012 20:13

    Personally I despise graffiti and think it's extremely low class. It's basically damaging property, be it public or private. There is no difference between spray-painting graffiti on some wall and keying someone's car, but no one tolerates the latter. It's a question of what you consider "art". A big swastika painted below my window does not constitute art in my book. But the article doesn't say anything about fining owners. It just says that if you want graffiti off your own house, you gotta' foot the bill for it.

  • RevRon

    03.05.2012 11:15

    Good point , Artist - the article is ambiguous because it says "sanctions will be on owners" which implies fines but the Sarapuu might have intended to say 'responsibility'. I would like to see the return of the stocks in Raekoja Plats for graffiti artists, we could all chuck paint at them and create our own art.

  • avatar

    Knut_albers

    05.05.2012 20:10

    Another hopeless attempt of Savisaar's City Government in regulating people by Illegal Everything. Ofcourse a swastika is no art, but how often do we have that case in Tallinn? Not very often. Even considering most graffiti as tasteless, doesn't really make the bad taste of Sowjet architecture that covers most of Tallinn any worse. And who actually is the government to tell private property owners what they gotta do with the graffiti on their walls? Give me a break, regulators. Let's also not forget the cost of government busybodies inventing such regulations and the costs of the resources needed, to enforce them. Better get the street holes filled, that's essential infrastructure and what you are here for, not playing Tallinn's prohibitor of our generation.