NEWS & ANALYSIS

Westmount's pro-active graffiti fight

By P.A. Sévigny The Suburban Even if Westmount's $70,000 cannot match the $700,000 the CDN/NDG borough is spending to fight the city's taggers, Westmount city managers are confident they can hold their own against the city's ubiquitous taggers and their insidious graffiti. "If we're going to deal with this problem," said Westmount Public Security Director Richard Bourdon, "the city will have to develop a proactive partnership with its own population." In a word, Bourdon believes presence makes a difference. As long as city residents remain vigilant and report damage done to their property as soon as it occurs, authorities believe the taggers will soon begin to look elsewhere for what a few describe as an urban art form and what everybody else describes as a pathetic and self indulgent waste of time and money. When asked why Westmount seemed to be less affected by the problem when compared to its neighbors, Bourdon said people made all the difference because the residents care about their city and taggers know they're at the mercy of anyone with a cell phone. Bourdon also told The Suburban the city is using what is known as a "Broken Window" policy to keep both private and public walls free of graffiti. Essentially, this means the city will make every effort to remove a freshly sprayed tag as soon as it is reported to the proper authorities. While expensive, he said the policy works because previous experience in other cities and boroughs demonstrate how taggers soon lose interest when they know their garish daubs will be erased as soon as they're noticed. "As of now, PSO (Public Security Officers) report over 80 percent of the damage being done by graffiti compared to only 20 percent being reported by citizens," he said. "That has to change." Even if the city's plan is only a few days old, Bourdon is confident residents will soon understand why their participation is important and what they should do about it. If the damaged wall is on private property, city officials will ask the property owner to sign a waiver allowing them to deal with the offensive tag. Previous to cleaning the tag, public security officers will also take a picture and begin to build a file which can be used as evidence in a civil court if and when the offender is finally sued for damages. "Of course we're going to take them [the taggers] to court," said Westmount City Councillor Gary Ikeman. "If we can prove they did it, they [the taggers] will have to pay to clean up the mess." As the councillor in charge of the city's public security, Ikeman said he can appreciate how both Verdun and Beaconsfield used the civil courts to deal with their graffiti problem. If authorities can forge a conclusive link

Hampstead says no to more left turns on Fleet

By Joel Goldenberg The Suburban Hampstead mayor William Steinberg ruled out a return to enabling cars to turn left onto many Hampstead streets from eastbound Fleet Road during the morning rush hour. A Queen Mary Road resident asked the question, pointing out that he lives near Holly - the site of a recent protest blockade by residents angry that numerous cars use their quiet street to head east as an alternative to the tie-up at Van Horne (which Fleet becomes in Montreal) and Decarie. Their area has been used because, up until recently, motorists were only allowed to turn left onto Queen Mary from Fleet in the morning. More than a month ago, Hampstead decided to allow left turns onto Dufferin Road as well, although Mayor William Steinberg said this was already planned and not done as a result of the protest. The resident did not comment on the protest, but instead asked "why is my street different from all other streets?" He added that while the extra left turn on Dufferin is "wonderful", but that numerous drivers are still turning left onto Queen Mary. "Why do you not open a left turn along all of Fleet so all the residents can share in the joy of seeing wonderful cars drive by every day?" the resident asked. Steinberg explained that when this was the case, about 1,000 cars each weekday morning made left turns off Fleet and that this was reduced by 800 because of Hampstead's morning rush hour restriction. The mayor added that, because of Côte des Neiges/NDG's

LEFT TURN

Cont'd from page 1 afternoon rush hours. "There's too much redundant traffic looping around," the councillor said. "In order to get to the south side of Fleet, the traffic has to loop around Alpine, Randall and Pinedale - go up Alpine [heading north off Fleet, toward Baily] and go south on Randall and Pinedale. "We want to relieve that part of it and allow residents to get home more directly. We're still going to maintain a restriction during peak traffic hours in the morning and night. We don't want to interrupt decisions to ban morning rush hour left-hand turns from eastbound Van Horne onto Clanranald and Coolbrook, the number of cars turning onto Queen Mary rose to about 450. "We've had a net reduction of over 500 cars a morning," the mayor said. "If we were to do what you are suggesting, overall, I guarantee you, we would have more than 1,000 cars a morning going through the area north of Fleet. That's why council won't do that." n the flow on Fleet. The hours [where turns would still be restricted] are not fixed yet. Berku admitted that, probably because the restrictions have been around so long, she is not sure why they were enacted in the first place. The councillor said other items up for discussion at the district council meeting include traffic calming measures for Baily Road, Borden and Pinedale Avenues, "all the streets in the neighbourhood. It's in continuity to a meeting we held regarding Baily and Glencrest, it will complement measures we'll introduce there." n between a tagger and his tag, a civil court judge may consider the "weight of the evidence" against a defendant as opposed to a criminal court's clear decision about guilt "beyond any reasonable doubt." "Once people begin to pay what it costs to clean up a wall," said Ikeman, "they might think twice before doing it again." Caught between a vigilant population, the possibility of serious time in court, massive fines and the city's aggressive cleaning policy, itinerant taggers may give Westmount a pass while looking elsewhere for suitable walls and a complacent, if not captive, audience. n

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