Avondale's program to fight graffiti is winning 'war of wills'

by David Madrid - Aug. 19, 2011 09:27 AM
The Arizona Republic

Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic

Joe Bender, with Graffiti Protective Coating, paints over a graffiti in Avondale.

The problem of creeping graffiti in Avondale once threatened to overtake the city.
But the vandalism was attacked in 2008 when a pilot program began using a private contractor to paint over illegal graffiti and restore damaged areas.
The pilot was a success, said Gina Montes, Avondale Neighborhood and Family Services director.
So last week, the Avondale City Council approved a $90,720 contract with Los Angeles-based Graffiti Protective Coatings for graffiti-abatement services for a year beginning Sept. 1 with three possible renewal periods.
Since May 2008, the Neighborhood and Family Services Department has contracted with Graffiti Protective Coatings to remove graffiti at city facilities, rights-of-way and parks.
"We were very happy to find this service," Montes said. "It has resolved what has become a big issue for Avondale, simply because graffiti tends to be a war of wills. The longer graffiti is left up, the longer graffiti offenders are encouraged to continue."

If not addressed, graffiti can attract other forms of crime and street delinquency to a neighborhood, while also decreasing residents' feeling of safety. Graffiti also decreases property values, city officials said.

During 2010-11, the company removed graffiti at 3,007 sites totaling 61,457 square feet.
Since the start of the program in May 2008, Graffiti Protective Coatings has removed graffiti at 10,093 sites for a total of 298,183 square feet.
Joe Bender, 45, and Rene Mercado, 38, work for the graffiti-abatement company.
They drive around in trucks armed with paint, compressors and high-pressure spray to fight graffiti. On Wednesday, they painted a wall at an abandoned facility near Avondale Boulevard and Lower Buckeye Road. Graffiti was visible from the street.
Bender said when the contract first began, employees were painting and restoring about 200 sites a week. That number is now down to 50 per week, which Bender said proves that constantly attacking the graffiti works to reduce the tagging.
"Most of it is just high-school kids running around, writing their names on stuff," Bender said. He added that the tagging is done with spray paint, Sharpies, paint pens and even old-time fire extinguishers that can be filled with paint.
"We've gotten a lot of them (offenders) out of Avondale," Bender said.
Mercado said taggers get discouraged when their graffiti continually disappears.
"It costs them money too," Mercado said.
The contract with the private contractor has enabled the city's Code Enforcement Division to deal with graffiti more efficiently and rapidly, thus freeing up staff time for other priorities, Montes said.
The graffiti-elimination services were procured by Avondale based on a cooperative-purchasing provision in a contract Mesa has with the company.
Avondale graffiti complaints are reported to code enforcement via a graffiti hotline or by iPhone, Droid application or e-mail. Work orders are transmitted by city code staff to Graffiti Protection Coatings via iPhone.
A city code-enforcement officer or resident photographs graffiti and sends the image to the company's database. The image automatically carries the location of the vandalism through the phone's GPS system, creating an electronic work order.
In minutes, a technician can be dispatched with the right color paint to cover the graffiti.
Typically, graffiti is removed in less then 24 hours, but there is a shorter timeframe available for priority work orders.
The company also removes graffiti along designated routes that Bender and Mercado drive regularly in search of graffiti.
"Most people view our city as being very clean in terms of graffiti, and it's because of this service that we're using," Montes said.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/swvalley/articles/2011/08/19/20110819avondale-graffiti-program.html#ixzz1cg3yB2NQ

Savvy Homeowners Can Save Plenty by Painting, Rather Than Replacing, Vinyl or Aluminum Siding

PHILADELPHIA, Aug 24, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- With the weak economy, few homeowners will be running out to replace their vinyl or aluminum siding. But that's not to say they can't improve its appearance or simply change the color by painting it.

"One of the best-kept remodeling secrets is that it's actually very easy to repaint these materials, especially vinyl siding," says Debbie Zimmer, spokesperson for the Paint Quality Institute. "And, it's a lot less expensive than replacing the siding."

While it can cost up to $20,000 or more to re-side a home, a professional painting contractor might charge $5,000 to paint it. Homeowners who do their own painting can often complete the job for just a few hundred dollars.

That said, do-it-yourself exterior painting isn't for everyone. Since spray-painting is best when painting vinyl or aluminum panels, it's preferable to have a little experience with this equipment. But for some homeowners, doing their own painting is a great way to save a bundle of money.

Zimmer says there are two secrets to painting vinyl or aluminum siding: good surface preparation and use of a top quality 100% acrylic latex exterior paint.

Surface preparation is simple when painting vinyl siding: just remove dirt and mildew from the panels with a commercial cleaner and garden hose, or rent power-washing equipment to speed the work. If any stubborn mildew remains, remove it with a solution of one-part bleach to three-parts water, then rinse the surface clean.

With aluminum siding, follow the same cleaning procedures. If excessive "chalk" is present afterward (run your hand across a panel to check for residue), repeat the procedure. Use bleach solution on any stubborn mildew, and rinse clean.

Keep an eye out for surface oxidation on aluminum. The tip-off is the presence of a white powdery substance on panels that are worn down to the bare metal. If oxidation is present, carefully remove the powdery material with a non-metallic scouring pad, then rinse the surface clean. Apply a quality exterior latex metal primer anywhere bare metal shows through. That will complete your surface preparation.

Choosing the right paint to use on vinyl or aluminum siding is simple, according to Zimmer: "These panels tend to be smooth to the touch, almost slippery, so you must use a paint with great adhesion. The paint that adheres best to these surfaces is top quality 100% acrylic latex exterior paint."

Paints made with 100% acrylic are a great choice on vinyl and aluminum siding for another important reason: They are extremely flexible. When siding panels expand or contract in very warm or very cold weather, these paints will tend to stretch or contract along with them.

Top quality paints also have superior "leveling", which means they will naturally tend to duplicate the original appearance of the siding, whether it is smooth or textured. They also resist fading, fight mildew growth, and are very durable.

When it comes to color choice, Zimmer offers one caution when painting vinyl siding: "It's wise to select a color no darker than the original. Dark shades tend to absorb the heat of the sun and can cause the panels to warp or buckle."

For those who truly desire a darker color, seek out one of the technologically-advanced paints that use reflective pigments to ward off some of the sun's heat. But be sure to ask the paint salesperson whether the color you like can be used on vinyl siding. 

For more information, visit blog.paintquality.com or www.paintquality.com .

Never Paint Your Home Again - Rhino Shield

October 24, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ --

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The Rhino Shield ceramic coating system involves more than painting the exterior of your home or business. This exterior painting technology helps to insulate the building to make it resistant to mold and mildew and algae growth.
House painting Mt Pleasant SC is known for a long and extremely hot summer season with lots of humidity. Utility rates often go through the roof. Rhino Shield's unique ceramic coating system bounces the sun's rays away, which helps to cool your home or business, which helps to lower your utility bill.

The look of Rhino Shield coatings is identical to exterior latex paint but that is where the similarity ends. Rhino Shield protective ceramic coating dries 8-to-9 times thicker than exterior house painting Charleston SC latex paint and maintains its vibrant sheen for many years to come.

Paint your home or building with exterior latex paint and within 3-to-5 years, you'll have to do it all over again. Save yourself and your wallet a lot of time and money. With Rhino Shield, there's no need to paint your home or building ever again unless you want a different color. Rhino Shield coatings can be tinted to more than 1,500 colors. Our patented coatings stick to most surfaces, including wood, stucco, brick, metals and HardiePlank(R).

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Rhino Shield ceramic coatings are guaranteed to last. The company makes sure that the independent dealer applicators who paint your home or business are thoroughly trained and certified, and they possess and maintain an A-rating with their local BBB (Better Business Bureau). Rhino Shield dealers must also be honest and provide the best in customer satisfaction, quality, and superior product innovation.

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World Trade Center slowly being "knitted back into the city"

By Douglas Quan, Postmedia News August 27, 2011
 
NEW YORK — Life, finally, has returned to "The Hole."
After lying dormant for years, the 16-acre World Trade Center site is teeming with cranes, earth movers and 3,000 construction workers daily.
Their job? To transform the site into a place that simultaneously memorializes and revitalizes — where people can come to quietly reflect and where capitalism can flourish.
Architect Nick Zigomanis, whose Toronto-based firm Adamson Associates has played a role in shepherding major parts of the complex project, says he's confident the right balance has been struck.
"We had to decide what is the new way we're going to live after all this? Are we going to solidify all this into a gravesite and memorial and stop moving? Or are we going to live?" he said.
"For me there is absolutely nothing wrong in saying this is a place to live and shop and make money and bring the business here. That's why we're all here. New York wouldn't be New York."
*****
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Zigomanis worried whether anyone ever wanted to build a skyscraper again.
Today, all he has to do is look out his office's windows at the World Trade Center site to get his answer.
Or rather, look up.
On the northwest corner of the site sits the partially constructed One World Trade Center tower which, when completed, will be the tallest building in the United States — a symbol of American resilience, some might say defiance.
In addition to the 1,776-foot-tall signature tower, the plans also call for three more office towers, retail stores and a major transportation hub.
Equally important, the site will provide space for people to get away from the hustle and bustle.
The centrepiece of the site is a memorial plaza filled with a forest of oak trees. The original footprints of the Twin Towers have been transformed into pools; water gently cascades down their walls, the names of each 9/11 victim inscribed in bronze around their borders.
There will also be an underground 9/11 museum and an above-ground pavilion, containing architectural elements from the original towers.
*****
Arriving at this balance between rebirth and remembrance did not come easily.
During early phases in the solicitation of ideas, some designers were adamant there should be no commercial development anywhere on the site.
Others took the opposite view. Don't just rebuild, but rebuild bigger and stronger, they said.
Contributing to the problem were the numerous parties who had a say in the redevelopment. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey owns the site, developer Silverstein Properties is the major leaseholder, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is a joint state-city corporation co-ordinating the effort.
Even after architect Daniel Libeskind's master site plan was chosen in 2003 following a worldwide competition, the reconstruction project faced further delays because of disagreements over the specific designs of each element of the site, which were parcelled out to several different architects.
A New York Times article in 2005 referred to the project as "one of the most muddled developments in the city's recent memory."
"It was very depressing to go by the site and read on a daily basis the incompetence of the powers involved. Everybody was fighting everybody else. Nothing was getting done," recalled Andrew Dolkart, director of the historic preservation program at Columbia University.
But now that the construction is well underway, it has helped to give a psychological boost to those who live and work in the area, he said. A site that was a "barren wasteland" for years is now slowly being "knitted back into the city."
The redevelopment also sends a clear message that New York is a "city that remembers but a city that goes on into the future."
******
New York City architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and architect David Childs took the lead role in designing One World Trade Center.
From its cubic base, the 105-storey tower rises in the form of eight isosceles-triangle glass walls, and tapers at the top.
"A skyscraper of that height has to be an icon. One of the things that was important to us in the beginning was to create an icon, a building that's recognizable only by its shape," said Montreal native Donald Marmen, an associate director at the firm.
As for the detailing, the firm chose a type of glass that is very specular and that would reflect light. As the sun moves through the sky, the tower's surfaces shimmer like a kaleidoscope.
The other three towers, located along the site's eastern edge in descending height, each boast their own identities as well.
Designs for each were finalized over an intense period in the summer of 2006 with Zigomanis' firm, Adamson Associates, helping to oversee the process.
- Tower 2, designed by London-based firm Foster & Partners, comprises four mini-towers whose diamond-shaped tops are cut off at an angle, as if to point back at the memorial plaza below.
- Tower 3, designed by London-based Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners, emphasizes transparency — showing the mechanical "guts" of the building.
- Tower 4, designed by Maki and Associates in Japan, takes on a minimalist approach with a cooler feel.
Sept. 11 really caused architects to think the "unthinkable" when incorporating safety features into their designs, Zigomanis said.
To that end, each tower was designed with additional options for getting out of the building, features to avoid a progressive collapse, better fireproofing and more emergency backup lighting.
*******
A billboard next to the site says the future has "never been brighter."
But traces of 9/11's dark days are never far. Street vendors peddle $5 booklets with graphic images of the planes barrelling into the Twin Towers.
A memorial wall outside a firehouse next to the site pays homage to the 343 firefighters killed that day. The pews at nearby St. Paul's Chapel still bear scuff marks from when 9/11 firefighters came to rest or pray.
A big question, however, remains: will people want to work here again? Dolkart, the Columbia University expert, admits he would not want an office in One World Trade Center.
"If there's any building in the world that's a target, that's it," he said.
"It has symbolic meaning for people who are troublesome. What more obvious target would there be than that?"
But there are some promising signs. In May, a news release announced publishing company Conde Nast would occupy one-third of the One World Trade Center tower, using the building as its headquarters and home for its magazines and websites.
Zigomanis says he gets his confidence from an encounter he had with a stranger a few years ago.
He and other project planners were heading to a meeting with technical drawings tucked underneath their arms.
They passed a group of tourists trying to sneak a peek through the perimeter fencing. A woman in the group, recognizing they were probably involved in the redevelopment, stopped them.
"Whatever you do, make sure this doesn't become a graveyard," she said.
"This is a place to live."
Dquan@postmedia.com

Exterior Painting Should Be Done Under Right Weather, Institute Says

Now that September is upon us, most of the country is entering the stretch run of the exterior painting season. If your house is in need of a new paint job, there’s little time to waste: “Paint-friendly” weather is fast disappearing.

“Doing exterior painting in the right weather conditions is extremely important,” says Debbie Zimmer, paint and color expert at the Paint Quality Institute. “Fresh paint forms a better protective film when it’s applied in moderate weather like that commonly seen in early autumn. If your house needs to be painted this year, you need to paint it now.”
To appreciate the urgency, it’s important to understand how paint “cures”. While latex paint dries to the touch very quickly, it actually takes many hours for it to form the most protective paint film. If the temperature is very hot when the paint is applied -- or more likely as winter approaches, if nighttime temperatures get very cold -- that can adversely affect film formation, and even lead to early flaking and peeling of the paint.
This point is vividly demonstrated on test panels at the Paint Quality Institute. More than 40 years of outdoor testing there shows that exterior paint applied in moderate conditions can last many years longer than paints applied in very hot, very cold, or even very windy weather.
Those extra years of service can offer homeowners a big return on their investment in an exterior paint job. As an example, let’s say a new paint job costs $3,000. If it lasts only five years, the annualized cost is $600; but if it holds up for 10 years, the annualized cost is only $300 – half as much!
As the days get shorter and winter approaches, painting in moderate weather is one of the most important factors in getting a long-lasting exterior paint job. Other things that can affect the longevity of a coating aren’t so time-sensitive, according to Zimmer.
“To get the most durable paint job, it’s always very important to properly prepare exterior surfaces and to use a top quality paint,” she says.
Good exterior surface preparation requires that siding and trim be clean and free of dust, dirt, and mildew, so that the new paint can adhere properly. Of course, peeling, flaking, or otherwise unstable paint should be completely removed, and any bare wood primed before painting.
As for the type of paint to use, studies show that high quality 100% acrylic latex paints are the most durable coatings for most home exteriors, including wood, masonry, vinyl and aluminum siding. These paints adhere well, they’re tough, and they’re very flexible, so they tend to expand or contract with the home exterior when temperatures rise or fall dramatically.
Which brings us back to the weather: As the song says, “For everything, there is a season.” When it comes to exterior painting, that season is now.

Written by Debbie Zimmer
Paint Quality Institute

San Jose fights graffiti surge

By John Woolfolk jwoolfolk@mercurynews.com Posted: 09/18/2011 03:14:12 PM PDT Updated: 09/18/2011 03:14:13 PM PDT

San Jose has seen a sharp spike in graffiti, up 38 percent from a year ago to the highest number of documented tags since 1999.

The surge comes at a time when budget cuts have forced the city to outsource its cleanup work.
City officials say annual surveys done each January since 1999 noted 44,405 graffiti tags citywide this year, up from 29,285 in January 2010. That was the highest figure since the city first started tracking graffiti tags in 1999 and counted 71,541. The City Council will consider the issue Tuesday.
"The volume of graffiti is higher," said Mike Will, a San Jose parks manager who oversees graffiti abatement, adding that reasons for the spike are a mystery. There hasn't been a greater number of any particular type of graffiti, he said.
"It's generally everything," Will said. "Maybe it's something to do with the economy, people's frustrations. We're still talking to experts and police to see what's going on."
Mario Maciel, superintendent of the mayor's gang task force, doesn't believe the surge is related to gang activity and blames "tagging crews" of high-school kids who thrive on the thrill of spreading their tags all over town.
"When there's a quantifiable spike, it's these tagging crews," Maciel said. "It's the whole notoriety among their subculture. That's how they validate themselves. We see that as a social epidemic."
San Jose saw sharp drops in graffiti from 2000 through 2003, and the number of reported tags generally held between 2,000 and 4,000 for the next several years. But in 2008 the number jumped to 13,902 and has risen dramatically each year since.
City officials in the latest January survey noted the sharpest one-year tagging increase in the city's fifth council district, centered in East San Jose, where the volume nearly tripled. District 7 in central San Jose also saw a substantial rise in graffiti. Downtown's District 3 as well as West San Jose's District 1 and the Cambrian area's District 9 also saw increases. Tagging volume dropped elsewhere.
Councilman Xavier Campos, who represents District 5, said he has noticed the surge in tagging and vowed in a statement Friday to devote city resources to fight it.
"Despite our budget cuts, we can not allow for the city's graffiti problems to spiral out of control," Campos said. "Under my watch, I will work to get to the bottom of what has caused the recent increases. The taxpayers expect better, and as council member of a district that is plagued with graffiti, I intend on making sure they get the benefit of every dollar they spend."
To close a $115 million budget deficit in June, San Jose officials outsourced the city's graffiti abatement program to a private contractor to save $1 million. Under a $633,000 contract with the city, Graffiti Protective Coatings Inc. is taking a somewhat different approach to cleaning up tags. By taking time to match paint to the vandalized surface, they are working to erase not only the tags but evidence that they've been painted over.
Will said that because the city had a limited variety of paint colors, its graffiti abatement crews could seldom match the original surface when painting over tags. Over time, he said, those surfaces began looking splotchy, giving them away as prime graffiti targets.
"You ended up with a quilt-patch of covered graffiti, which in many cases looks just as bad," Will said, noting that those surfaces were often quickly vandalized again.
Barry Steinhart, general manager of Graffiti Protective Coatings, said San Jose isn't alone in seeing a surge in graffiti.
"Everybody's increasing," Steinhart, whose Los Angeles-based company also has served Alameda County and the cities of Santa Cruz, Long Beach, Santa Ana and Mesa, Ariz. "Graffiti's a problem everywhere. It's like a sport to these kids."
Steinhart said he was surprised how much graffiti there was in San Jose but that his crews are working to paint over tagged areas so that they don't invite repeat vandalism and are easier to manage. The company's crews are starting in the hard-hit East San Jose area.
"They had a lot more graffiti than we anticipated," Steinhart said. "It's just going to take a little bit of time to get everything under control and where it needs to be."