Silver Lake Works to Wipe Out Graffiti

To kick off a graffiti cleanup in Silver Lake, volunteers earlier this week painted and scrubbed walls, tunnels, underpasses and buildings in six locations.

The cleanup was sponsored by Councilman Michael Woo’s office, the Silver Lake Residents and Merchants associations and the Northeast Division of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Larry Loyd, president of the Silver Lake Merchants Assn., said of the vandals who deface property: “If we keep painting over them, hopefully they’ll get tired of painting and we’ll win.”

Teams have been formed to watch for graffiti in their areas and to repaint or clean a defaced area as soon as it is spotted, said Barbara Miyamoto, a field deputy for Woo. Paint is to be supplied by the city and by donations from Silver Lake businesses and residents. Miyamoto added that a hot-line number to Woo’s office will eventually be installed for people to report graffiti. The spots targeted for initial cleanup included:

The Sunset underpass at Silver Lake Boulevard, Silver Lake Boulevard between Rockford Road and Cove Street, the pedestrian tunnel at Rowena Avenue and West Silver Lake Drive, the Myra Street underpass, the intersection of Fountain Avenue and Effie Street near Sunset Boulevard and the intersection of Glendale Boulevard and Allesandro Street.