Vandalism Taking Its Toll

Halifax has always had a big problem with vandalism including graffiti “artists” and plain troublemakers. Recently the culprits have stepped it up a notch and targeting highly beloved areas of the city. Last week the large wave sculpture on the waterfront was targeted, and the past weekend it was the Public Gardens. According to the news reports, there were benched found in the fountains and flowers dug up during this morning only 2 days after it opened for the season.

The main reason for these areas being targeted is due to the visibility in the city. Both are visited by hundreds of people on a daily basis and would be discovered very quickly. The problem is that crimes of this nature are very hard to stop and very expensive to clean up. The only suggestion which would have any hope of working would be the use of security cameras in these areas which may or may not already exist. The police are being very tight lipped on the location of these cameras which were installed last year due to the rise of violent crimes.

If these people are caught, I hope they are forced to clean up messes like this so they realize the damage they are causing. Even using professional equipment it can take days to fully restore an hours worth of damage. Our city has enough problems to concentrate on then to have to worry about out own people causing damage to our attractions.