GARDEN GROVE : City Workers Happy to Brush Off Graffiti

Six women in the city’s accounting office switched from number crunching to graffiti busting Friday, painting over slogans and apparent gang warnings and boasts on a wall along the old Pacific Electric railroad tracks.

Armed with paint rollers and several gallons of donated paint, the women volunteered to spend their day off doing their bit to get rid of the graffiti.

Deep budget slashes in July forced the city to nearly eliminate its anti-graffiti effort. Only one employee in the city’s graffiti-cleanup detail has survived the program cuts, and his duties are to eliminate only the most obnoxious scrawls.

With spray-paint scrawlers reportedly growing more active than ever, the city is trying to keep from becoming awash in graffiti through voluntary efforts of city workers and residents.

“I just hate it,” said Judy Smith, a senior accountant and longtime resident of Garden Grove, who was credited by her colleagues with organizing the off-day work party. “I don’t understand why people are destroying other people’s property. I thought if we don’t go out, the graffiti could end up all over the city.”

Smith said she will volunteer to go on future graffiti-erasing missions and hopes that other residents will follow suit.

“Nobody likes it except the people who put it up there,” said Monica Neely, another volunteer.

“It looks awful,” volunteer Carol Tyrrill said. “It’s too bad we can’t catch the people doing it and get them to do the painting.”