Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo calls on property owners to clean up building graffiti before New Year’s Eve celebration in Miami

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MIAMI, Florida (WSVN) — A City of Miami commissioner said an ongoing battle between the city and the property owners regarding the cleanup of graffiti needs to end.

Commissioner Joe Carollo held a news conference on Tuesday, and he said it was time for the graffiti on the old VITAS building to go.

“I mean, would you love to have that next to you where you lived? I don’t think so!” he said. “People look at that and say ‘What is this?’”

The controversy stems from the building located at the 300 block of Southeast Second Street. It was a VITAS healthcare building before it was abandoned and set for demolition with all the proper permitting.

But James Torres, the president of the Miami Downtown Neighbors Alliance, said the owners of the building, Florida East Coast Realty, changed their mind.

“They changed the way they want their permitting done, whether it’s a cost issue or a timing issue,” he said.

Carollo said the owners stalled the demolition process on purpose.

7News reached out to the owners but they didn’t respond to the request for comment.

But the change of plans has left the building standing there for months.

So, during Art Basel 2023, in the middle of the night, artists from across the world converged on Bayfront Plaza and began drawing graffiti on the building.

Since then, the City of Miami has been battling with the city’s owner to get it painted over.

“This was done just to make it as ugly as possible. As you can see, this is a joke,” said Carollo.

“This is not downtown Detroit,” said Torres.

Earlier this year, the City of Miami threatened the company with hefty fines to get them to clean up the graffiti. The City of Miami Code Enforcement Board ordered the property owners to cover up the graffiti within one month or face fines of up to $500 a day.

The enforcement of those threats has been delayed several times in the months that followed.

Now, Carollo and other power players in the city want the building to be painted before the annual New Year’s Eve celebration at Bayfront Park.

For tourists visiting the Miami area, some see the graffiti as an eye sore while others see it as a sight for sore eyes.

“What’s your first thought?” 7News reporter Michael Hudak asked.

“Crime. Stay away. It looks terrible,” said Dr. Dan Edelman, who is visiting from Texas.

“I think you should leave it. It’s more of an art piece,” said Lou Price, visitng from Chicago.

“Graffiti is art all in itself. I like it,” said Lydia Price. “I think in the right area it would be better suited. But this area maybe not so much.”

Carollo is not the commissioner in charge of the district that houses the building, City Commissioner Damian Pardo is.

Commissioner Pardo released the following statement Tuesday night:

The city administration has worked diligently with the building’s developers and we expect screens to cover the graffiti within 2-3 weeks at the latest.

(Editor’s Note: Photo caption updated to remove an incorrect reference to the building’s owner.)