Midtown Kingston business owners frustrated with graffiti

Business owners in Kingston, Ont., are saying they’re fed up with an abundance of graffiti that has cropped up recently and are calling on the city for solutions.

You see a few familiar sights when driving around midtown Kingston, from the bustle of traffic to the sights of construction, but one sight that’s become all too familiar according to one local business owner is graffiti.

“This is a criminal activity, it’s vandalism. These people need to be caught,” said Robin Brent, who owns a business in the area.

Brent said the rampant graffiti can leave visitors to Kingston with a bad first impression.

“The City of Kingston spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to attract people to our city and here it is the main street, they’re driving down and they see this unsightly mess,” added Brent.

Williamsville District Coun. Vincent Cinanni said the city has acknowledged the problem and is currently working to find a solution.

“We are trying to develop a plan and a strategic plan to find ways to identify the really bad areas where there are graffiti and try to like help improve overall,” he said.

According to Kingston Police, it can be difficult to pinpoint those areas without help from the community.

“Oftentimes complainants just think it’s graffiti, I’m not gonna bother reporting it, it’s too minor to report to the police, so it’s actually really difficult to get a picture of what we’re dealing with,” said Kingston Police Media Officer Anthony Colangeli.

According to police, the charge associated with graffiti is mischief.

A conviction on the charge carries a maximum fine if graffiti of $5,000, but that would require catching the individual red-handed.

Brent said he is more than happy to do his part.

“I wanna be part of the solution and get rid of this problem,” he said.