PHOTO BY MATT PREPROST Enlarge Image

Ryan Malec of the West End BIZ TAG Team, paints over a tag left along a fence on Hargrave Street last week.

The surprisingly balmy start to winter has been keeping Winnipeg;s graffiti cleanup crews unusually busy, as taggers have remained outside hard at work instead of sheltering themselves from the cold.

"Anytime the weather is milder that of course generates more (graffiti)," said Gloria Cardwell-Hoeppner, executive director of the West End BIZ.

The BIZ, along with its Exchange District counterpart launched the TAG Team, or Teaming Up Against Graffiti, last summer.

The team removes graffiti for a number of other BIZs, including Academy Road, Corydon, Mosaic Market, Norwood Grove, West Broadway and Osborne Village.

"West Broadway seems to get hit a lot," Cardwell-Hoeppner said. "It’s a big area, and really dense. There are a lot of little corners so you might not see the graffiti right away."

A four-person crew works full-time year round.

While most of the business community in the West End is graffiti-free, the same can’t be said for the residential areas, where tags still proliferate many of the area’s back lanes, she said.

Obtaining waivers from homeowners remains the biggest challenge, she said.

"A lot of people just don’t want to sign off. I don’t understand why, it’s a free service," she said, noting the crews, who are professionally trained, match paint colours the best they can.

"Even if we don’t, isn’t it better than a tag?"

Part of the problem is tracking down the large number of rental property owners, who simply don’t care, she noted.

Still, the organization collected more than 700 waivers last year, she said.

She said the organization would like to see amendments made to city bylaws so organizations like the BIZ could remove graffiti without a waiver if homeowners are not proactive in removing it themselves.

It’s a model the BIZ is currently researching in other cities, she said.

Over the last year, the TAG team has removed about 4,000 tags.

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matt.preprost@canstarnews.com