Burwood Street’s Not Taking It Anymore : La Habra Neighbors Discourage Crime, Graffiti by Cleaning, Reclaiming Their Turf

Are you resigned to crime, graffiti, drug dealing and other such undesirable activities, and beginning to accept them as one of the prices to be paid for urban living in Orange County? If so, the chances are you don’t live anywhere near Burwood Street in La Habra.

Residents there refuse to keep accepting that way of life. They’re mad, and they decided they weren’t going to take it anymore. So they harnessed their outrage, banded together and grabbed brooms and paint brushes. Gangs and taggers may have left their garbage and signatures behind on Burwood Street, but residents, by cleaning up the debris and painting over the graffiti, are hoping to send a stronger message back: They’re not going to keep sitting by in silence and let vandals trash their neighborhood--or use their streets for drug traffic.

Police like what they see. They know that when people start taking pride in their neighborhood they also start working to protect it and begin calling police when they see criminal activity.

So the city has pitched in to help residents help themselves.

La Habra’s Community Services Department provided cleanup materials. Neighborhood Watch groups from nearby streets came over to help. A youth club trying to bring an end to gang violence showed up. And some city employees, police officers and members of the police Explorer’s Scout post lent a hand. One officer brought along his 2-year-old son, and children as young as 5 were wielding paint brushes, getting as much paint on themselves as the graffiti they were removing.

It was a labor of love--one that should be spreading to other areas, not only in La Habra but throughout Orange County.

The battle on Burwood Street may be a small start, but that’s how and where the war against urban crime and vandalism may best be waged--and won--block by block.