Tagger-troubled San Diego endorses plan to centralize efforts to fight graffiti

SAN DIEGO – San Diego is ramping up efforts to fight graffiti by making it easier to report wall scrawls.

U-T San Diego (http://bit.ly/1w9HAh3 ) says the City Council on Monday endorsed a plan to centralize anti-graffiti efforts in one department beginning in January.

Currently, people have to call three different phone numbers to complain, depending on whether taggers have hit sidewalks, commercial property or homes.

Authorities say the city received nearly 30,000 graffiti reports from 2010 to last June.

Officials say the problem has worsened since 2008, when the city cut anti-graffiti spending from $1.5 million to just under $800,000 and slashed the number of graffiti-eradication workers nearly in half.

By comparison, Phoenix — a city of similar size — spends $4.3 million a year fighting graffiti.