Officials Voice Support for Campaign Against Graffiti

Top Los Angeles county elected officials pledged their support Monday night to a campaign to rid the San Fernando Valley of graffiti by restricting and taxing spray paint sales and encouraging cleanups through alternative sentencing.

The cleanup effort was organized by VOICE--Valley Organized in Community Efforts. Leaders of the community group said they were not looking for a temporary cleanup of graffiti, but want to keep walls clean permanently with a program that combines restrictive legislation with alternative sentencing and more city money.

In addition to its earlier call for state taxes on sales of spray paint and felt-tip markers, the group asked that spray cans be locked up in stores to prevent theft. It urged judges to sentence more convicts to paint over graffiti-covered walls, and requested the Los Angeles City Council to pledge more than $3 million in additional funding for graffiti cleanup.

At a meeting at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Canoga Park on Monday night, public officials promising to help VOICE included Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, Sheriff Sherman Block and City Councilman Nate Holden.

Reiner said “getting rid of graffiti is an essential first step” to reducing gang activity.

At the state level, the group wants a 10-cent tax on cans of spray paint and a 5-cent tax on wide-tipped felt-tip markers. That money, Wilson said, would be put into programs to keep young people off the street “so they won’t be out joining gangs and doing graffiti.”

At the local level, VOICE wants spray cans in stores to be locked up to prevent theft since much of the paint used in graffiti is stolen. Holden and Antonovich gave their support to that idea.

Scott Wilson, a VOICE organizer, said the city of Los Angeles spends more than $2 million a year to clean up graffiti. The Rapid Transit District spends more than five times that amount, he said.