L.A. Seeks to Erase Writing on the Walls

As he drove up Wilbur Avenue in Northridge, Los Angeles Police Sgt. Paul Haberman nodded toward a pristine white wall surrounding a new housing development and, speaking as the local police division’s anti-graffiti czar, offered a fatalistic observation.

“This will get hit,” he said.

By hit, Haberman meant the wall probably will be defaced with the wild markings of young vandals who have made graffiti a growing problem in the northwest San Fernando Valley. And yet unlike gang graffiti, which is used to stake out turf, these scribblings are simply the marks of local youngsters who like to write on walls, he said.

The problem is not out of hand, Haberman said, but graffiti is becoming more common in parts of Chatsworth, Northridge and Granada Hills--communities that were largely spared the spray of paint cans in the past. Authorities don’t know why that seems to be changing.

Dale Coons-Mintz, deputy to Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, said the councilman’s office has received numerous complaints about graffiti in the 12th District, which includes much of the northwest Valley. Bus benches, freeway underpasses and utility boxes are favorite targets, she said.

‘Problem Grown’

“The graffiti problem has continually grown in the last year,” Coons-Mintz said, particularly in the last six months.

“It’s a shame, really,” said Elizabeth Huhmann, whose back-yard wall was hit recently. The wall, which faces Devonshire Street, had never been a problem in the 10 years she lived in the area, she said.

Haberman and Coons-Mintz recently walked past that wall as they toured the area near Devonshire Street and Reseda Boulevard and plotted ways to foil the street artists.

Haberman pointed to a curvy and indecipherable black marking whose author he had caught in the act.

That boy was among 10 who spent several hours this month, wire brushes in hand, trying to scrub their handiwork off concrete block walls along Devonshire Street. They also cleaned up another favorite target, the Devonshire Division police station.

In some cases, the paint would not come off, so police informed the victims that they could sue the vandals’ parents to have the walls cleaned professionally. Haberman said several victims warmed to the idea.

But the overall solution, Haberman said, is to stop the vandalism while the trend is still young and to prevent a domino effect he called the “broken window” syndrome.

Simply put, one broken window can tempt a normally law-abiding person to break a second window. And then a third. So it is with graffiti, Haberman said.

Short of catching vandals in the act, the best solution is to paint out the graffiti quickly, Haberman said. Toward that end, representatives from homeowner associations, chambers of commerce and other business organizations will meet at the Devonshire Division today at 1:30 p.m. to plan a cleanup effort.

Volunteers Sought

Coons-Mintz said organizers are trying to locate volunteers for cleanup crews to work April 16 and May 7. She said San Fernando Municipal Judge Michael S. Luros has agreed to provide extra workers in a unique way. Luros says he will order some offenders to join the paint crews as part of their sentences to community service work, she said.

Coons-Mintz and Haberman said they hope the area’s Neighborhood Watch groups can be called upon to clean up graffiti on a regular basis and to keep an eye out for the young vandals.

The vandals themselves are often high school or junior high school students who sometimes view themselves as artists, not criminals, Haberman said. In fact, few of the vandals arrested by Devonshire police seem to realize that they are hurting other people with their markings.

“Did any show remorse?” he was asked.

“Yeah, after I had them work for several hours.”

Haberman said that the vandals most often write their names and that the graffiti is not connected to gangs. “None of these kids have criminal backgrounds,” he said, adding that some of the vandals are straight-A students.

The youngsters are sophisticated, too.

Some of the vandals told police that certain paints worked best on certain surfaces, Haberman said. Others could say what properties in the paints made them effective. Haberman said it was like talking to a bunch of chemists.