Giving Graffiti the Brushoff

When there’s any hint of danger, such as the time he painted over graffiti on a freeway median in San Juan Capistrano, Phil Duke works alone.

But whenever he gets a chance, the 46-year-old house painter takes the family along to help out on his two-year quest as Capistrano Beach’s self-appointed top tag-buster.

“I take the kids with me to show them how crummy graffiti looks,” said Duke. “I’ve always been a hands-on kind of person and I try to do as much as I can with them. This is a way to show my kids how to have pride in their community.”

What has developed is a one-family crusade to rid their neighborhood of unsightly graffiti. Several times a month, Duke cruises the San Clemente/Capistrano Beach area, bringing 13-year-old Rusty Duke or 11-year-old Mardi Duke to assist with painting chores whenever possible.

A professional painter, Duke has all the tools he needs in his van, including supplies of gray paint to match cement surfaces. Custom colors in his arsenal of paint are donated by a local paint shop.

Whether it’s a city light pole, neighborhood fence or back wall of a local business, Duke moves in and does the job, then leaves without accepting payment or even a pat on the back. Most times, the property owner isn’t even aware that Duke was there until the graffiti disappears.

One night last December, vandals defaced the white exterior walls of an office building in San Clemente’s Ocean View Plaza, a retail/office complex facing busy Interstate 5.

The next morning, property manager Robert Haig sent his handyman to buy paint to clean up the mess. Shortly after the handyman left, Haig saw a white van pull up to the rear of the building.

“This man and his daughter started unloading equipment; it looked suspicious,” Haig said. “I asked him if anyone was paying him and he said no, and then I really got suspicious. Then I asked him what compensation he was getting for this and he said, ‘I just want to keep my neighborhood clean; this is what I do.’ ”

“I told him that I was going upstairs to write him a check and he said, ‘No, thank you,’ ” Haig recalled. “He was just doing it as a good Samaritan.”

Haig called San Clemente Mayor Scott Diehl, who officially commended Duke at a City Council meeting this month. Naturally, the Dukes came as a family to accept the honor.

But don’t make the mistake of viewing the family as the Ozzie and Harriet of Orange County, warns Duke’s wife, Nedia. Two of their four children have learning disorders that cause them to struggle in school, she said. And family squabbles, particularly among the younger children, aren’t uncommon.

“We have our rough edges,” said Nedia, 37. “The kids are real active and half the time it drives us nuts. But Phil tries very hard to do things with the kids. He takes them to a bunch of activities like Indian Guide and Indian Princess (youth programs) and I think he enjoys it more than the kids.

“We try to show our kids the value of working as a team,” she said. “That’s why he takes them along when he goes to take care of the graffiti.”

Phil Duke’s urge to eliminate graffiti evolved slowly over recent years when he commuted to house-painting jobs in the Los Angeles area.

“I saw how really bad graffiti is in Los Angeles when I’d work there,” Duke said. “Then I saw it creep down to Anaheim, then Mission Viejo. When I saw it show up in Capistrano Beach, I said I’m not going to let this happen here.”

One evening, the family drove past a public sign defaced by graffiti. In disgusted tones, Duke criticized the ugliness. The next day, Nedia Duke drove past the signs again “and it was gone. Phil had already wiped it out,” she said.

Graffiti is one of South County’s fastest growing problems. Local communities that contract with the county Sheriff’s Department for police protection have formed a regional task force known as the Delta Force to combat the problem.

So far, officers have arrested 15 graffiti vandals over the last year, including two on Monday night.

“We have seen a significant increase throughout South County over the last year,” said Mission Viejo Sgt. Fred Lusante. “It’s one of the primary jobs of the Delta Force.”

It wasn’t always like this.

When Gary Cleppe worked in Vista Paints’ Mission Viejo store two years ago, there were no complaints about graffiti from customers. But since Cleppe took over the paint chain’s San Juan Capistrano outlet in mid-1991, he has seen droves of people come in to get paint to cover up graffiti.

“I think we average at least one customer per day coming in to buy paint because of a graffiti problem,” he said.

Cleppe donates the store’s slightly miscolored paints to Duke “because I can’t see him taking money out of his pocket for this kind of work.

“He’s the kind of guy who, if he sees something wrong in the community, he’ll do something about it,” Cleppe said. “There’s a lot of graffiti out there, but people like him make the difference.”