Property Owners Doubt Graffiti Plan Will Work : Vandalism: The city would charge for cleanup. Shopkeepers say they already are waging a continuing battle to paint over markings.

Shopkeepers in Los Angeles neighborhoods hit hardest by graffiti said Wednesday that they are skeptical about a City Council proposal to charge property owners who refuse to paint over the markings.

“We have tried to paint many times, but it doesn’t work,” said Dr. Yoon S. Kim, who owns the building at 6th Street and Union Avenue that contains his dental office. “It sounds like a good idea, but the next day you have to paint again.”

The council’s Budget and Finance Committee voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of charging owners the cost of hiring crews to paint over graffiti on their properties.

Property owners could avoid the city charge by doing the work themselves after receiving a notice.

Currently, the city pays a dozen nonprofit groups to paint over graffiti.

But supporters of the proposal, which must be passed by the full council, say that there is not enough city money to hire the number of painters needed to keep pace with the widespread vandalism.

“Once graffiti invades a neighborhood, a lot of other problems follow,” said Sister Carmel Somers, a member of Valley Organized in Community Efforts, a San Fernando Valley community group seeking passage of the measure. “The idea is to stop charging taxpayers for taking care of graffiti on my property.”

Charging property owners for graffiti removal is similar to weed abatement laws, Somers said. “You are responsible for removing the weeds, even though you didn’t plant them,” she said.

But others say that property owners are not the problem.

“Most business owners are willing to take care of graffiti themselves,” said Judy Herrera, graffiti supervisor for Community Youth Gang Services, one of the groups hired by the city to paint over the markings.

And some business owners in the Westlake area, which city officials say has one of the most serious graffiti problems, question whether the proposed measure will make any difference.

Ira Erenberg, owner of Serv-U Pharmacy, said he already paints the side of his rented building as often as three times a week.

“I don’t know if there is an answer,” he said. “I remember one time the police had a campaign to paint over the graffiti and before the paint truck left the neighborhood there would be more graffiti.”

Gerald Whitehead, manager of a seven-story building at Wilshire Boulevard and Union Avenue, said property owner David V. Adams retains a painter who spends most of his time covering graffiti.

“Frankly, it is a continuous battle,” Whitehead said.

Gary Leemon, an attorney whose office is on 1st Street in Boyle Heights, said he had the side of his building painted only a week ago. It was still free of graffiti on Wednesday.

“That could last a week or a day, although in the last few years it’s gotten better,” Leemon said. “I don’t really know what the graffiti says, but it seems it’s just kids doing it.”

The lawyer said he used to keep a painter on retainer to check for graffiti once a week. Now he calls Community Youth Gang Services.

“I would do the painting myself before I would let the city come and charge me for it,” he said.

Jim Yoshida, owner of the M & Y Service Station at 1st and Mott streets, also doubts that threatening to charge property owners will do much to end the problem.

“They’re still going to spray,” said Yoshida, who has owned his business for 40 years. “When they do, we paint it up right away. They don’t bother me too much.”