SCHENECTADY — The gang tags, racial slurs and epithets that have defaced seemingly every public building in Schenectady could take just seconds to wash away, courtesy of chemistry.

Mayor Brian U. Stratton is considering buying a special anti-graffiti paint that could coat every building that vandals regularly target. The paint, a silicone polyester mixture, is so smooth that nothing will stick to it. According to vendors, a firefighter with a high-pressure water hose could clean graffiti off the paint in moments.

“We’re talking about testing it in some areas to see if it works,” Stratton said.

If it performs as promised, he’d like to coat all of the railroad underpasses, which are almost always covered with graffiti.

He would also like to make the paint a requirement for new buildings downtown, as well as for all new facades funded through the Metroplex Development Authority facade program.

“You can take the preventative measure of at least putting a sealant on new bricks,” Stratton said. “Unfortunately it’s something we’ve got to be aware of. It’s sad. It seems to be everywhere — even the gates at the Central Park entrance have been hit.”

Metroplex Chairman Ray Gillen said the anti-graffiti paint could be a lasting solution.

“It does work. On subway cars and buses, it works great. I’ve never seen it on buildings,” he said.

A vendor will soon meet with Metroplex and the city to discuss the product, he added.

“We look forward to learning more about the technology as it applies to buildings, facades, etc.,” Gillen said.

Meanwhile, Stockade neighborhood residents have formed a new group to fight the graffiti that has now spread from their railroad underpasses to their historic houses.

They plan to ask the Crime Victims Board for money to buy paint to cover over the graffiti. They also plan to apply to the Center for Community Justice, which supervises criminals sentenced to community service.

“I’ll supervise them while they paint off the graffiti,” said resident Martin Manley, adding that the criminals would pay in sweat if they have to wash off graffiti painted on brick. Residents scrub off the paint rather than risk damaging old bricks by sandblasting them, and several veterans of that cleaning process grinned broadly at the thought of criminals doing the work instead.

“It’s extremely difficult to remove graffiti with solvents and a wire brush,” Manley said.

They briefly discussed covering the railroad underpasses with murals to discourage graffiti — a deterrent that had been considered by the city as well — but resident Valerie Ackerman said it wouldn’t work.

“We do not have a graffiti problem. It’s gang-tagging,” she said. “Graffiti artists are drawn to any blank canvas. These are drug sellers marking territory. A mural probably won’t have any impact, in fact they’ll probably vandalize it.”

The vandals have not been impressed by the residents’ efforts to paint over their tags as soon as the paint is dry. Just days before the Stockade’s annual sidewalk art show, vandals wrote a nasty message in foot-tall letters on the side of the railroad bridge that many would have passed on their way to the show.

Resident Carmella Ruscitto painted over the words herself just before the show.

She used primer, which is expensive — it costs about $100 to cover an entire underpass. But using the anti-graffiti paint would cost much more.

Primer and paint for just 500 square feet costs $219, according to US Coating Solutions, a company in Florida. Each railroad bridge is roughly 1,500 square feet, including both the concrete tunnel walls and the bridge itself. That means it would cost nearly $700 to coat just one of the bridges — the same cost as painting it seven times over the course of a year. The city ran out of paint months ago, but covered each bridge at least twice this year.