The City of Ljubljana is launching a socially responsible campaign against vandalism “Man, take care of your city, you only have one” as a strong message that vandalism is unacceptable and to stress the importance of respecting our common public space.

In Ljubljana there are on average 150 instances of vandalism recorded per year, and that is just on the property of the City of Ljubljana. Meaning that the destruction of property and causing of damage happens almost every second day. The most common targets of vandalism are buildings and their equipment, followed by the equipment in public spaces, and third on the list are wall writings and graffiti which are most noticeable, create the impression of neglect of public areas and diminish the sense of security.

In the past four years Ljubljana has sustained approximately 357,000 euros of damage from vandalism on the buildings owned by the City of Ljubljana, and the expenses are covered by the city budget.
The most common targets of vandalism are schools and kindergartens as three quarters of overall instances of vandalism are recorded on their buildings and property. For this reason the activities against vandalism and preventive measures will be primarily directed towards the youth.

The activities of the City of Ljubljana against vandalism

Within the scope of the campaign “Man, take care of your city, you only have one” youth street work is going to be organised in June at 15 locations – especially in the vicinity of primary and secondary schools, residential areas and on public surfaces exposed to vandalism. The Public Institute Young Dragons and the Institute Bob are going to be in charge of the activities as they have many years of experience with youth work and youth street work within the framework of the Young Street Network. The activities are going to be repeated at the beginning of the next school year, and thereafter becoming part of the regular program of the Young Dragons. Citizens of Ljubljana can report acts of vandalism at the website www.ljubljana.si by using the updated Citizens’ Initiatives web application.

The public companies Snaga and LPP are joining the campaign, the company Snaga by implementing the plan of graffiti removal and LPP by enhancing awareness-raising among passengers regarding the damage on city buses caused by vandalism. In the past four years LPP recorded approximately 76,000 euros of damage, predominately on windows and passenger seats; and the public company Snaga loses approximately 20,000 euros every year because of vandalism and theft of its containers.

The campaign “Man, take care of your city, you only have one” is supported by public personalities with whom young people can identify with: singers Rok Terkaj and Magnifico, Žiga Födransperg – Fedr from the bar Lepa žoga and actor Primož Petkovič – Petko.

The objective of the campaign

The basic goal of the campaign “Man, take care of your city, you only have one” is to reduce all forms of vandalism to the lowest possible level, to increase the sense of security of people in the city, to raise awareness among the citizens of Ljubljana regarding the damage caused by vandalism and how they can reduce the damage and consequential costs. The money from the city budged spent on repairing vandalism damage could be invested into more useful projects for the improvement of the quality of life of our citizens.
The campaign “Man, take care of your city, you only have one” falls within the scope of the Ljubljana European Green Capital 2016 activities as we want our citizens to live in an orderly, clean and healthy city.