PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland mayoral candidate and current public safety commissioner Rene Gonzalez says he has a solution to the city’s graffiti problem.
Last week, he announced he will be introducing a new ordinance that would impose what he calls "meaningful penalties" for vandals.
“Portland’s natural beauty has been overwhelmed by widespread vandalism, like graffiti covering our street signs and small businesses,” Gonzalez said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “As Commissioner, I have committed to restoring our sense of pride and security. To stop further visible decline, we must have stronger deterrence for vandalism.
“Unfortunately, the current lack of consequences for these perpetrators has emboldened them. I'll be bringing forward an ordinance that introduces meaningful penalties for vandals that apply graffiti using our rights-of-way. Portlanders are ready for visible progress on cleaning up our city.”
He then linked to a Willamette Week article detailing his plan.
What penalties would this ordinance put forward?
According to Willamette Week, the new ordinance would create a new class A misdemeanor offense for those convicted of tagging. That new misdemeanor would carry a minimum sentence of a week in jail and 50 hours of alternative community service, where they will be put to work cleaning up graffiti.
The minimum sentences would not be applied to minors.
If passed, the ordinance wouldn't apply to private property but would apply to building walls where the property line meets the public right of way, such as a sidewalk. It also applies to street signs, transit stops and any other public infrastructure.
KGW has reached out to Gonzalez's office for more details but has not yet heard back.
The graffiti stops here
Portland seems to have developed a new vigor to improving the city's appearance. The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) has made several arrests recently, largely due to the efforts of just two officers who investigate graffiti.
In August, the city handed down a 2.5-year sentence to a tagger who pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal mischief, the first under its crackdown on graffiti. At the time of his arrest, PPB said that the 28-year-old Jerry Mijangos had been picked up a number of times dating back to 2021, and that officers had referred over two dozen cases involving Mijangos to prosecutors.
In July, an 18-year-old was arrested shortly after road crews in July shut down a stretch of Interstate 84 for a major cleanup of the area.
The Portland City Council unanimously voted in June to foreclose on a long-term graffiti eyesore, the old Gordon's Fireplace Shop building in Northeast Portland, which is scheduled for the auction block on Sept. 20 — though the foreclosure sale could be halted if the property owners file for bankruptcy.