FULLERTON : Graffiti’s No Joke but It’s Off the Wall

The gang markings on the wall at Coyote Hills Park already had been crossed out with black spray paint, probably by a rival gang member.

But Fullerton’s new two-man Graffiti Crew used a roller and a can of beige paint Friday morning to obliterate the gang names, nicknames, and other red and black markings that stretched for 50 feet along the wall--to the delight of park neighbor Jay Saraiya, 53.

“We’ve been here for 10 years and we never had any problem with graffiti until this year,” said Saraiya, an engineer. “The earlier it’s removed, the better off we are because it doesn’t encourage more.”

Before Saraiya continued, he copied down Fullerton’s week-old graffiti hotline number for future reference.

The city created the full-time graffiti crew in April because it feared that it was losing the battle. Previously, city maintenance workers focused their graffiti efforts on city property and contracted with Commerce-based Graffiti Removal Inc. to respond to other complaints.

Using a private contractor usually meant that graffiti stayed up for two or more weeks, Eloisa Espinoza, who manages the graffiti-removal program, said. “Our goal is to respond in 72 hours,” Espinoza added. “And we usually do pretty good.”

Graffiti on walls, bridges, benches, utility boxes, sidewalks, overpasses and underpasses often advertise names of gangs and the nicknames of its members, according to Ray Solis, 55, leader of the city’s Graffiti Crew.

The Graffiti Crew gets in as soon as possible with paint and a pressurized water steamer to remove the blight.

“There are some walls we paint over, and the next day they’re back,” he said. “I don’t anticipate we’ll be running out of work. There was one time when we were painting out a bathroom and we heard this ‘sssss’ and a guy comes out of the stall with a can of spray paint down his pants.”

As he surveyed the freshly painted wall at Coyote Hills Park, Solis bent down and picked up a red plastic spray can top. “Here’s the evidence right here,” he said.

To begin the stepped-up anti-graffiti program, Fullerton bought a new truck and outfitted it with a 300-gallon, gas-heated water steamer. Still to be installed next week is a compressor and 100-foot hose to spray over the graffiti rather than the slower hand roller.

Also available is an answering machine to record complaints 24 hours a day, and a computer to record and track graffiti complaints and record how often areas of the city have been cleaned.

The city budgeted $52,000 for the program, which is about $8,000 a year less than Fullerton paid to its former graffiti-removal contractor.

Removing graffiti has become an expensive proposition for all cities, especially large ones with concentrations of street gangs.

Anaheim will spend about $170,000 this year to remove graffiti and Santa Ana about $600,000.

The amount of graffiti is increasing everywhere, said Bruce Freeman, Anaheim’s code-enforcement supervisor in charge of the graffiti-removal program.

“Two years ago, we didn’t have nothing like we have now,” Freeman said. “Today, we remove it and the next day it’s back.”

Last month, Fullerton’s Graffiti Crew covered about 11,250 square feet of graffiti, the equivalent of a six-foot-high wall stretching for 1,880 feet. About five to 10 calls come in a week from residents, asking for removal of graffiti near their homes, Espinoza said.

Fullerton’s graffiti hotline number is (714) 738-3108.