Graffiti is causing headaches for some Lethbridge businesses.
In recent months, Wayne Tytula, owner of Brio Salon Spa noticed an increase in graffiti tags in the area and predicted it would be a target.
“I knew it was probably a matter of time before we also got hit, and sure enough a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night we were tagged as well,” said Tytula.
On February 8, a neighbouring business to Brio, Paramount Printers, caught the vandal scaling their building to tag the salon.
“We a have security camera in the back capturing the gentleman with an expandable ladder and he made his way up on the roof in the middle of the night,” said Co-Owner of Paramount Printers, Courtney Gregson. “Took him about an hour.”
Similar-looking graffiti has appeared along 3rd Avenue and in the downtown in recent weeks, with many of the works tagged 2024.
While an obvious effort is being put into vigilante artwork, the illegal acts aren’t necessarily appreciated.
“As a local artist, graphic designer myself, I’m a bit biased about the graffiti that’s been going on in the city,” added Gregson. “Visually it’s quite appealing, from a standpoint of trespassing and vandalism that’s kind of my borderline issue with it.”
Jarred Garrick, founder of Rovü Developments & Creative Agency, who has several prominent mural pieces on private businesses in Lethbridge, also shares his appreciation for the artistry.
“It’s tough,” explained Garrick. “It’s a fine line to say what’s vandalism and what’s art. It’s all in the eye of the beholder, like some would hate it and I get that. Some love it and I get that as well.”
He shares there should be more opportunity to help foster these talents, and encourages the street artists in question to reach out to Rovü to collaborate on pieces in a positive way.
“There are ways to mitigate this and really dial back the vandalism and, you know, give street artists a place to breath and preform on the street,” said Garrick. “So, if you’re at the city, I would say: let’s open up that conversation and figure out some way, shape or form to really hone in on this. So, let’s just start the conversation.”
Tytula also notes that the graffiti artist in question is putting a lot of effort into the work.
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“I would challenge this artist to do something positive with his work,” said Tytula. “There’s been many famous graffiti artists, Banksy, Jean-Micheal Basquiat, their artwork is still around years after they’re gone because it’s valued as art with social meaning.”
Tytula said while the damage done to the side of his building could cost thousands of dollars to properly remove or cover up, he’s been approached by another artist to potentially cover the graffiti with meaningful art.
“If I’m going to spend money covering up, maybe I’ll spend money doing something beautiful,” added Tytula. “So, there’s an opportunity for this person to come out of the darkness and bring their art into the light, so people can appreciate it for what it is.”
Brad Plausteiner, owner of LA Home Solutions, also had his business hit by a group of taggers that he caught on camera on Dec. 30, 2023.
“It’s really frustrating to be wasting that kind of money and time and energy on something that we have nothing to do with.”
For Plausteiner, the graffiti on the historic building isn’t easily removeable.
“The materials used, it can’t just be easily fixed, or sand blasted so it’s always a bit of a tricky thing because we have to match paint in order for it to look good.”
While private businesses are tasked with paying out of pocket to remove unsolicited graffiti, businesses located in the Downtown Lethbridge BRZ zone can benefit from the graffiti removal program.
BRZ executive director, Sarah Amies, says a division of the Clean Streets Program, which is funded through the City of Lethbridge, sends out a dedicated group of people to quickly and efficiently clean off graffiti.
However, the effort to clean up the downtown will ramp up when the weather improves.
“We run a cold-water pressure washer and it’s really difficult to run it in the wintertime,” said Amies. “So that’s why there does seem to be a proliferation of graffiti right now, but it’s sort of situation normal, it’s just we haven’t been taking it down.”
Amies went on to add that last summer they noticed a jump in graffiti and removed nearly 100 tags in a month.
Robert Jurcic, the owner of Robin Eye Window Cleaning and Janitorial Services, has recently started branching out to include graffiti removal within his services, something he anticipates to begin advertising in the coming months.
“Travelling in the downtown district all day and all night, we noticed the popping up of all this new graffiti, lots of them are really big pieces that are in hard-to-access areas,” said Jurcic.
Jurcic shared they want to help the community clean up the tags but says it’s not always an easy task as they want to avoid damaging the building or surfaces underneath.
“It’s definitely a time-consuming and laborious process to remove graffiti. It requires a lot of specially know-how with the substrate that the graffiti is on itself.”
The City of Lethbridge has its own graffiti removal process and will resolve issues made on public property, and if people are concerned about tags they’re encouraged to call to 311.
According to the city, 311 averaged 16 requests per month in 2023 and are currently sitting a total of 16 calls for action on graffiti in 2024.
Sgt. Ryan Darroch with Lethbridge Police Service says they’re looking to catch the vandals marking up the city.
“It’s disappointing to see property owners get their property damaged like that,” said Darroch. “These are small business owners and people who are just trying to pay the bills.”
Darroch says that if the suspect is caught, they could face significant charges and fines tied to vandalism, mischief and trespassing.
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