LA Graffiti Map: Thousands Of Hours Of Cleanup And 270,000 Square Feet Of Tags In A Month

Every city has its own graffiti problem, and Los Angeles is no exception. Removing the tags costs thousands in both dollars and man-hours. KPCC, Pasadena, sifted through graffiti data collected by LA's Office of Community Beautification and created an interactive map that shows just how difficult and never-ending this battle was in the course of a month.

In January, there were 34,681 graffiti reports from the office. The data does not include reports from Caltrans, the state agency for highway, bridge and rail planning, construction and maintenance, the LA Department of Recreation and Parks, LA County, the LA school district or the Metro, KPCC said. Graffiti previously cost LA County $30 million in cleanup costs in 2007 while Metro awarded Graffiti Shield Inc. a $19.5 million contract to minimize tagging.

"Graffiti damage in the Los Angeles area costs the public millions of dollars each year. The cumulative cost of glass restoration, graffiti removal, property repair and restoration, loss of property value and even loss of revenue can be overwhelming -- and they’re on the rise," Jeff Green, CEO and co-founder of Graffiti Shield Inc., said in a statement.

There were 34,681 reports of graffiti to LA's Office of Community Beautification, KPCC said. The tagging covered 270,000 square feet and required more than 10,000 hours to clean up. Weekdays are the most popular for taggers while holidays had the fewest reports. While LA tries to combat the issue, it's a difficult problem to solve. February saw 31,000 more, graffiti reports.