Community Drives to Clean Up Graffiti Hit a Roadblock

Los Angeles officials have taken the steam out of do-it-yourself anti-graffiti campaigns by warning community groups that they must have permission to paint over vandals’ scrawlings on public as well as private property.

Officials have warned organizers of community cleanup efforts not to touch graffiti on private property without advance written authorization from property owners. And volunteer cleanup crews are being told that they cannot paint over annoying graffiti on many publicly owned facilities, such as traffic-signal boxes.

The warnings are coming as city officials acknowledge that they have yet to come to grips with the growing problem of gang markings and slang names scrawled across the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere in Los Angeles.

But the new restrictions could threaten graffiti-eradication projects planned in such communities as Woodland Hills and Tarzana, where graffiti generally have not been a problem until recently.

In the East Valley, where residents have had experience with graffiti, City Councilman John Ferraro called various experts to a community meeting in North Hollywood Wednesday night to discuss new ways of handling the problem.

“We’re finding out that getting permission to paint over graffiti on private property isn’t as easy as it sounds,” said Jim Campbell, cleanup committee chairman for the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization.

Campbell’s group plans to provide brushes, buckets, rollers and paint to volunteers meeting at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Pacific Boy’s Lodge, 4900 Serrania Ave.

But Campbell said he was called Tuesday to a meeting with a police commander that put a serious dent in the Woodland Hills cleanup campaign.

Besides needing advance permission from private property owners, the Woodland Hills group needs permission from a variety of public agencies before it can tackle graffiti on such popular graffiti targets as street signs and curb-side signal boxes, he was told.

“Finding the owner of a mall that has graffiti isn’t easy,” Campbell said Wednesday. “We’re not going to be able to do much on Saturday.”

In Tarzana, the Chamber of Commerce is distributing hastily printed release forms to shopkeepers along Ventura Boulevard asking permission to paint their defaced walls during a cleanup campaign scheduled for Saturday May 21.

Los Angeles city officials are providing paint and brushes for that effort, said Don Whittemore, president of the Tarzana Chamber of Commerce.

About 150 volunteers have been recruited to paint over graffiti at hundreds of sites along Ventura and in Tarzana alleys. But so far, only 25 property owners have signed the releases, Whittemore said.

Whittemore discussed his options this week with City Council members Joy Picus and Marvin Braude and Capt. John Higgins, commander of the Police Department’s West Valley Division.

Braude, whose office has supported local anti-graffiti campaigns for eight years, said advance permission should be sought “if there’s any uncertainty” about the property owner’s reaction to painting over graffiti.

“But if the owner isn’t available, I’d encourage them to go ahead with their program,” Braude said. “The lack of advance approval has never been a problem in the past. I can’t imagine the city attorney filing a suit under those circumstances.”

Nonetheless, painting someone else’s property without permission is illegal, said a city attorney’s office spokesman.

Guidelines for painting over graffiti on public facilities were spelled out for the first time Tuesday when police, transportation, public works and other city officials met.

The officials said it is all right to paint over graffiti on certain types of light poles, but not on others. They said some traffic signal boxes cannot be touched because improper repainting could lead to higher temperatures inside that would damage electronic equipment.

They said the silver side of street signs can be painted over, but not the directional side.

For their part, several City Council members said they are looking into a proposal that would require business owners to cover the bottom 9 feet of their stores’ walls with a special sealer that prevents spray paint or graffiti markers from sticking.

“If an owner can walk out with a garden hose and wash off graffiti the day it appears and it’s easy, we’ll get rid of graffiti and build community pride,” Wall said.

Another Tarzana businessman, tire shop owner Ohanness Seropian, said he has his own anti-graffiti plan.

Seropian allows youngsters to spray-paint murals and graffiti on a concrete block fence in a field behind his Reseda Boulevard shop--provided they keep their spray guns away from his shop.

If slogans do pop up on a wall, Seropian’s authorized “artists” are usually quick to get rid of them.