Growing Army Fights Signs of Urban Blight

Ugly scrawlings of graffiti on walls and other objects are pervasive in Baldwin Park. Weed-filled vacant lots--littered with abandoned furniture, mounds of trash and junked cars--dot the city.

To resident Jean Martens, the blight was so overwhelming that it gave her a sinking feeling.

“It was almost like it was a contagious disease that was just going to keep spreading and spreading and never go away,” she said.

The gang markings and the trash made Ralph Miller angry.

“It just bothered me. I figured I’d better do something if nobody else will.”

So this summer--armed with paintbrushes, shovels and trash bags--Miller, Martens, and a handful of other residents determinedly began to wage war on the disease that was choking out the city’s civic pride. Employing a variety of means, they began cleaning, tidying and restoring order to Baldwin Park.

Martens formed a group called “Baldwin Park Beautiful” that has begun sponsoring a community cleanup day every month. Since they began meeting in late June, the group has spruced up four locations and attracted more than 100 volunteers to each site.

Miller, a recording engineer, picked up his video camera and spent several weekends driving around the city documenting the mess. Earlier this month, he showed a five-minute tape to the City Council to make the officials aware of the blight. As a result, the council asked the city manager to look into the matter and report back at Wednesday’s meeting.

Miller also has volunteered to repaint the city’s 60 U.S. Postal Service mail boxes. The graffiti covering the deep-blue receptacles is so thorough many were nearly unrecognizable.

“It seems like we’ve touched a nerve. We may be part of a larger trend where private citizens are picking up the slack that government just can’t do anymore,” said Bob Benbow, school district adult education director and a member of Baldwin Park Beautiful’s executive committee.

“It’s an important statement to our city that there are involved people here. We’re a blue-collar community, and there’s a lot of self-esteem involved for those who are buying into the (beautification) idea,” Benbow said.

Struggling with repeated budget shortfalls, the Baldwin Park city government has cut its code enforcement staff and significantly reduced its graffiti-fighting crew.

A utility tax approved this summer by the council will bring in new revenue, enabling the city to hire a code enforcement officer by early next year, officials say. But the community volunteers are aware that one code enforcement officer will not be able to clean up the entire city.

“There’s just so darned much to do that we wanted to start right away and build momentum,” said Martens, a real estate agent and Baldwin Park resident since 1973.

On the clean-up days, committee members, students, service club members, city council members and city workers have shown up at vacant lots and empty business parking lots to fill dumpsters to overflowing with trash.

Local businesses have donated paint, gloves and other supplies and area restaurants have provided lunch.

“We find broken glass bottles that could have been recycled, enormous amounts of abandoned furniture and household items and even health hazards, like piles of dirty, disposable diapers,” Benbow said.

As the volunteers work, neighbors often come by, Benbow said. Often, they will watch for a while and then pick up shovels and start helping out, he said.

The committee members admit that the enormity of the job can be overwhelming, especially when freshly painted walls are hit by graffiti vandals the day after the volunteers leave.

“You work so hard, sometimes it’s discouraging,” Martens said.

Miller said he has repainted some mail boxes up to 11 times in a kind of war with the vandals. He admits that he fears for his safety while he is out erasing the graffiti.

“People started hassling me when they first saw me painting, so I got an orange vest from the city,” he said.

The postal service supplies Miller with paint and stickers for the boxes, but does not pay him for the work.

Martens said she knows her group could become an easy target for gang members angry that their graffiti is being painted over.

“A lot of it is done by taggers, young kids who are not really dangerous. But some of the graffiti is put up there by gang members. We feel we should approach the job with rational thinking,” she said.

The volunteers usually go out in large numbers so they feel safe while wiping out the graffiti, she said.

And, even though they may be making only a small dent, the beautification advocates feel every little bit helps.

“We’ve had the best turnouts anyone has ever seen in Baldwin Park,” Martens said. “This is the right time to be doing this.”