Denver removed more than 3 million square feet of graffiti last year - a record, and a 23 percent increase over 2005.

And this week's warm weather has brought a new surge in spray paint vandalism, with police making eight graffiti-related arrests, including a 35-year-old postal worker who begged investigators not to alert his employer.

"I said, 'You know what, I'm sure they'd like to know what a fine, upstanding employee you are: 35 years old and you're tagging like a 2-year-old,' " Detective Ray Ruybal said.

With Denver's graffiti woes showing no signs of letting up, city officials and other stakeholders are considering government's role in removing graffiti from private property.

Unlike other municipalities, Denver removes graffiti from private property for free. But that could change.

A committee formed after a graffiti summit in the city last year is recommending that "the responsibility of graffiti clean-up be shifted from the city to the residential or commercial property owner."

The group is also recommending that Denver adopt an ordinance requiring that graffiti be removed from public property and businesses within 48 hours and from homes within 72 hours.

All ideas are still being examined, and a task force will make final recommendations later this year to Mayor John Hickenlooper.

But last year's record graffiti removal has officials thinking about their options.

"They say you can make numbers say anything, but I cannot make those numbers tell you that graffiti is going down," said Neddra Niblet, a Public Works Department program administrator.

"I can also look at what's going on pretty much across the country and in Europe, and there's no place where this isn't a problem," she said.

Denver has five crews and spends about $1 million annually removing graffiti from private and public property. A sixth crew is coming on line soon.

Despite the city's efforts, Denver is still covered in graffiti.

"At some point, we do have to bill people, whether they're home-owners or businesses," said Councilman Doug Linkhart, who chairs the council's safety committee. "But that's after several notices and offers of help."

Lakewood and Aurora, for example, give people five days and seven days, respectively, to take graffiti off their property.

"You have to get it off right away," said Terry Anderson, a code enforcement supervisor in Aurora. "If you let it go, it grows."

Lakewood police Sgt. George Hinkle said the problem with making property owners responsible is that they feel like they're being victimized twice.

Still, he estimates a 90 percent compliance rate.

Both Anderson and Hinkle said their cities help people, such as the elderly or disabled, who can't remove the graffiti themselves.

Some Denver residents are already tackling the problem.

Star Edwards was so vexed by the vandalism around her home in the Five Points neighborhood that she bought paint and cleaned the graffiti herself.

"I've cleaned a whole alley on my own," she said.

Linkhart said graffiti contributes to a perception of crime.

"Whether or not we have a high crime rate, when people see graffiti and they see homeless people asking for money, and they see kids with saggy, baggy pants all over the place, they feel fearful," he said.

"They don't want to live in a city and feel threatened, and that's what graffiti does," he said. "It makes you feel threatened."

In his own words

Raul Borja, 43, moved to Denver six months ago and says the graffiti problem here is catching up to that of other major metropolitan cities. Borja, manager of a Discount Market on South Federal Boulevard, said the city's graffiti-removal crews cleaned the vandalism off an entire wall of the grocery store Thursday. Two new taggings were up on the same wall by Friday.

When I was growing up in L.A. in the '70s and '80s, my dad never let me out of the house after 9 p.m.

My friends were always in the street, tagging walls with monikers of the gangs they used to belong to.

We were between the ages of 13 and 17 years old.

But like my dad said a hundred times: "What are these kids doing in the street after 9 p.m.?"

I think the solution for something like this is that the parents be held responsible for their kids' actions and pay for the cleanup of the walls that their kid tagged.

The city and the state should enforce the law, and the police . . . should try to get the leaders from each gang or group - whatever they are called - or create a special unit.

Get help from L.A., Chicago or New York.

Just get help.

chacond@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5099

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