The Barcelona City Council is currently engaged in a tough battle with the city's most persistent graffiti artists. The administration of Mayor Jaume Collboni is pleased that the new municipal strategies have reduced the number of graffiti tags in the most problematic areas of each district by around 90%. In less than a year, with the new cleaning contract, the City Council removed 21,376 graffiti tags in these areas. At the beginning of the year, technicians eradicated precisely 17,752 tags. Later, in the spring, they found another 2,424 in the same places, and those were also removed. A few weeks ago, they concluded the third round, eliminating 1,140 new tags. Therefore, as they clean, they are also reducing the rate of re-soiling. In the spring, the re-soiling rate was 13.6%, and now it is 6.4%.
The numbers show that the city has never been cleaned as much as it is now. The old anti-graffiti municipal services worked in such a random way for so long that the three major cleaning operations carried out this year in the most problematic areas substantially changed the appearance of many traditionally tagged streets. A walk through Ciutat Vella, the district most affected as always, reveals how many places, conquered by spray paint for decades, now have a clearer look. In Tallers street, in Castella square, in the most challenging points on this side of the city, at the beginning of the year, technicians removed 5,346 graffiti. In the second round, they erased 481. And in the third one, 534. The re-dirtying rate in Ciutat Vella is 10%.
The signatures of the writers are the most insistent, obsessed, determined... Fines do not intimidate them. Many have given up on having a bank account. Performing a few hours of community service is part of the job. They understand that theirs is a way of life contrary to the established one. If you get erased, you come back. You have no other choice. But the new municipal strategies are discouraging many more who are more concerned about trends, fads, and social media. Having their pieces systematically erased and then being fined really puts them off. Because of these practices, the Urban Guard issued up to 328 fines in 2022, and 484 in 2023. This year, up to the third quarter, it adds up to 376. They are the tags, the crudest scribbles, the signatures made in a few seconds, the pieces that are currently most widespread. Like the ones that ruined the newly decorated shutters of several shops in Sant Andreu this weekend. The City Council is also gathering information on the most active graffiti artists, compiling a catalog of the most common signatures. However, judges do not usually consider this as evidence, and instead base their sentences on the graffiti being done by the graffiti artist in question at the time of being caught.
The Urban Police issued 484 fines in 2023, and 376 during the first nine months of this year
“We are working with a broader perspective to maintain excellence in public spaces,” highlights Laia Bonet, first deputy mayor. “The new contract for graffiti removal has allowed us to expand our teams and work in a more comprehensive and coordinated manner. Graffiti is being removed from most elements of the city: facades, planters, urban furniture... This is a commitment of the municipal government and a cornerstone of the Endreça plan. Its results are already being praised by the citizens, as indicated by the latest Municipal Barometer data and the Municipal Services Survey.”
Municipal sources detail that up until a year ago, graffiti cleaning services primarily focused on non-listed facades, road surfaces, and sidewalks. It was actually a somewhat improvised job based on citizen complaints and what the teams in charge found. With the new contract, starting earlier this year, the City Council added ten new teams, bringing the total to 36, four of which specialize in heritage buildings. As a result, the service now also operates on facades with protection levels B, C, and D. This way, they can finally address the majority of all the old town areas in Barcelona. Only the buildings with protection level A remain outside this scope, such as the Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi, which require special treatment.
Depending on the surface, the workers either remove the graffiti or paint over it
In addition, municipal sources abound, the new contract also includes the cleaning of many urban elements that were previously overlooked. We are talking about benches, streetlights, signs, bollards, railings, bike racks, planters, New Jersey barriers, non-ornamental fountains, large concrete balls, traffic lights and their boxes, street name signs... That's why the three cleaning operations carried out this year in the most problematic areas have yielded such remarkable results. There are numerous streets in all neighborhoods of Ciutat Vella, the main thoroughfares of Eixample, the old town of Sarrià, the superblock of Sant Antoni... “The first pass through these areas was tremendously laborious,” according to sources from the City Council. “There was a lot of pending work – we even removed the stickers! So now we can consider expanding these areas where we carry out deep cleaning operations three times a year for the coming year.”
