Verner wants to ban kids from having spray paint

It’s clearly a mark of these graffiti-stained times: Spokane City Hall is talking about banning spray paint in the hands of kids.

On Wednesday, Councilwoman Mary Verner unveiled a proposal to make it illegal for anyone under 18 to possess spray paint on a public street, alley, sidewalk or other public place.

The draft ordinance would also make it illegal to sell or furnish spray paint to a juvenile, although a child could obtain the paint with written parental permission.

The effort comes after a profusion of graffiti this year.

Through mid-May, police received 600 reports of graffiti. The damage in those incidents was valued at $70,000. The problem is larger, officials said, because numerous incidents never get turned in.

Verner, who is running for mayor this fall, is teaming up with police and neighborhood groups to come up with solutions.

“You will see some action,” she promised during a meeting Wednesday at the West Central Community Center, in a neighborhood widely marked by scofflaws.

Ideas include getting graffiti removed more quickly, and levying sanctions against commercial owners for leaving it up. Current city law only forces cleanup when graffiti is found to be gang related, which accounts for about 5 percent of the problem. An answer, officials said, is to force cleanup of all malicious markings.