Pitch In to Clean Up the Freeway Mess : * Caltrans’ Adopt-a-Wall Program Involves Citizens in Turning Back the Graffiti Blight

Like the never-stay-dead movie character, the Terminator, graffiti vandalism along Orange County’s highways seems to just keep coming back to life no matter what is done to kill it.

But as discouraging as it seems, succumbing to defeat in the ongoing battle against this spray-paint blight would only invite further deterioration in victimized communities.

That’s why new efforts to involve citizens in attacking the problem on Orange County’s freeways are especially welcome.

They not only should save government money but also involve residents in keeping their communities clean. That helps instill the kind of civic pride needed to curb graffiti in the first place.

Recently, the California Department of Transportation’s Orange County District began a local version of a statewide anti-graffiti program dubbed Adopt-a-Wall. An outgrowth of Caltrans’ successful anti-litter Adopt-a-Highway program, the new cleanup effort provides paint, equipment, safety clothing and other needed items to those who promise to clean up graffiti from mile-long segments of sound walls.

In appreciation, the civic groups, business organizations and individuals who participate are named on a plaque attached to the sound wall.

But that’s not all that’s being done. Also new on the Orange County scene is an interagency anti-graffiti program aimed at prosecuting juvenile offenders.

Joining in the effort are Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol and Orange County’s juvenile court, district attorney’s office and probation department.

They are devising better ways to fit the punishment to the crimes. For example, offenders may be sentenced to 20 days in a Caltrans-sponsored anti-graffiti program. Or they may have to give 100 hours of community service, pay a $250 fine or lose their driver’s licenses for a time.

Caltrans’ Orange County office spends about $300,000 a year on graffiti removal. While that’s a small amount compared to the Los Angeles area, where an estimated $1.5 million was spent in the 1990-91 fiscal year to clean up graffiti on the freeways, it is a considerable sum that could be spent on maintenance, improvements and other highway needs.

Adopt-a-Wall will not replace Caltrans’ cleanup efforts but simply add to the capacity of the highways agency to keep freeways free of the graffiti blight. It’s a worthy new program that deserves support.