MONTREAL- Business owners in NDG say keeping graffiti off their buildings, or cleaning it up after they've been 'tagged,' is frustrating.
Now it may get costly as the Cote des Neiges/Notre Dame de Grace borough is planning to fine building owners who don't clean up spraypaint fast enough.
Susan Clarke, a councillor for CDN/NDG, says business owners will have one week's warning to remove graffiti before they are fined.
"The inspectors will give them legitimate warning that they need to have it removed," said Clarke.
Business owners on De Maisonneuve Blvd. who are frequently hit by graffiti vandals say they are being twice victimized.
"We try to put cameras. We try to put everything else and it's impossible to stop it from happening," said Greg Kataroyan of Automation Collision.
Frank Pistilli of Inter-Auto Repairs agrees.
"A day, a night goes by, maybe the weekend, it's all back on again, all the taggings," said Pistilli.
He has even installed spotlights to deter the vandals, but it only seems to encourage spraypainters.
"Why are we supposed to be punished and penalized for this? It's crazy," said Kataroyan.
The city is suggesting people who own buildings put barriers up in front of their walls.
"Planting vines, planting rose bushes to make them less attractive. So it isn't going to necessarily be difficult for the large businesses," suggested Clarke.
Owners of residential units and smaller buildings will not be subject to the fines.
"We're going to continue to remove illegal tags from those buildings and also from those of small businesses, under 300 square metres," said Clarke.
Meanwhile the city does go after vandals who are caught, and one repeat offender was handed a cleaning bill of $22,000.
But that's just a small fraction of the $700,000 the borough spends cleaning up walls hit by vandals.
