SYLMAR : Graffiti Busters Hope for More City Funds

To turn a community around, it must be cleaned up first. That’s a lesson Charlotte Bedard has learned, and one she wants the administration of Los Angeles Mayor-elect Richard Riordan to understand.

“We found out when we started to clean up graffiti here that if the area was kept clean, then everyone started to feel pride in it,” said Bedard, who in 1988 helped form the Sylmar Graffiti Busters.

Bedard hopes that Riordan’s promise to turn the city around will mean more money for graffiti removal. But she also worries about possible cutbacks in community cleanup programs.

“I think that we’re going to see more of a positive approach to the graffiti problem, not only here in the Valley but citywide,” Bedard said. But more money is needed, she said.

The group receives $45,000 a year from the city, only enough to last six months, with the rest raised by donations. Bedard’s group removes graffiti in a 27-square-mile region in Sylmar, and picks up garbage as a way of preventing more graffiti.

The cleanup provides a sense of pride, Bedard said. Taggers tend to hit areas that show a lack of pride, where garbage piles up in empty lots. Bedard said the city is cutting back on the assistance it gives to community cleanups.

City officials have said that budget constraints have forced cutbacks, but that no policies have been changed.