* Graffiti removal, another unfunded mandate
Topics: Regulation, FreeSpeech
03 Nov 1994
From: "DG Ervan Darnell"
The Houston city council recently passed a law requiring all property owners
to clean up graffiti within 30 days when notified by the city they must.
The city also reserves the right to do the clean-up itself and then put a
lien on the property owner until the paint job is paid for.
It's another instance of an unfunded mandate, like every hiring law from AA
to Family Leave, "Drug Free Workplace", and the "Wetlands Act". If
something is worth doing, it's worth what it costs. It is just too easy to
say 'we think it is ugly, you clean it up'. I cannot imagine business is
ecstatic about graffiti either. That they don't clean it up demonstrates
the cost is greater than the benefit. That the city cannot find the money
to do it proves only the same thing again, faced with the real cost, the
benefit does not justify it.
Toward the end of the article, the even uglier truth comes out: "This
so-called graffiti is really a billboard or sign board wherein gangs
communicate to each other, often times threatening death, " said our
imperial mayor, Bob Lanier. In other words, it's not the splashes of paint
they are so concerned about, but rather the content. The purpose of the
ordinance is censorship and private business who are the victims must bear
the cost of enforcing it.
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