Mayor Jaime Martínez has set up a cross-departmental unit at Palma town hall for tackling what he has said will be a priority for his administration - eliminating the city's graffiti.
Until now, different areas at the town hall have operated separately, but they are being brought together and coordinated by the councillor for infrastructure, Belén Soto. As well as her department, others are the Emaya municipal services agency, the police and the departments for citizen participation and mobility.
A pilot project for this coordination will be launched in a part of the city centre in September. This will cover buildings and structures of different types that require different cleaning treatment and administrative processing. A listed building, for instance, needs authorisation from the Historic Centre Commission. Specific treatment is necessary for certain types of stone.
The town hall will be examining regulations as they apply to private buildings. At present, it cannot act unless there is permission from owners. There is to be a citizen awareness campaign to take care of street furniture and to keep it clean.
There are going to be tougher penalties. The town hall intends classifying graffiti vandalism as a "very serious" infraction, for which the maximum fine under law will be applied - 3,000 euros. In the case of listed buildings, criminal proceedings will be initiated.
Entities such as the ARCA heritage association are said to have welcomed the town hall's plan "with great interest".
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Graffiti is a much more serious problem than just being an eyesore. Graffiti goes to the heart of a city’s image to the outside world demonstrating to visitors, tourists and residents that the local Council has lost control of the city and that feral behaviour is rampant and out-of-control. It sends a message to criminals that this is a city where the chances of being caught in the act are less and so they move in for the pickings. Additionally you can imagine the negative effect that this bad image has on would-be tourists in the attractive and lucrative middle and upper markets whose key criteria for choosing a city holiday are safety and security. Especially so the North Americans who Mallorca is setting out to attract to the island. Catching those who make the graffiti isn’t rocket science. They can’t operate in broad daylight so they’re working in the early hours, they’re locals and they carry their tools and paints around with them. A period of increased vigilance by the police at that time of night looking out for those with heavy bags will surely nab quite a few. Once caught their punishment could be to remove their own graffiti plus some community hours. All it takes is a plan and the will to execute that plan.