Veteran of South Gate’s War on Graffiti Finds His Reward in ‘Nice, Clean’ Walls

In the advance guard of South Gate’s 3-year-old war on graffiti, you’ll find veteran “hydroblaster” and paint expert George Alcantar.

A member of the city’s orange-shirted Parks and Recreation anti-graffiti squad, Alcantar spends 10 hours a day, four days a week scrubbing tagger signatures and indecipherable scribbles off walls and sidewalks.

“It’s really rewarding work, especially when you drive past a nice, clean wall,” Alcantar said.

“Most people take it for granted that South Gate has some of the cleanest walls around, but we don’t. We get out there and fight what taggers and gangbangers leave behind all day long.”

Alcantar and about 30 other South Gate residents, business owners and city employees have been honored for their participation in what is affectionately known as the city’s WOG, or War on Graffiti.

Sometimes the fighting is quite literal, said Alcantar, who recalled the time he and a partner spotted a dozen gang members spraying an MTA bus with tags--the arcane, individual signatures left by thousands of city youths almost anywhere.

After Alcantar confronted the youths, they turned on him and surrounded the city pickup truck in which he and his partner were riding.

“They circled around us and started shaking the truck,” said Alcantar, now laughing off the incident as just another facet of his job.

Alcantar called police for help and six of the taggers were arrested, leaving Alcantar with a war story and the duty of clearing the bus of the signatures left behind. He said the most common methods of ridding surfaces of graffiti are “hydroblasting”--which involves shooting a high-density spray of water and sand--and simple paint removal.

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Started in 1991 at the urging of city residents shocked by an upsurge in graffiti activity, WOG emphasizes cooperation between the community and city government.

“Before we started the WOG, there wasn’t a building on Tweedy Boulevard that wasn’t full of tags,” said Police Chief Ron George in a speech detailing the history of the anti-graffiti program.

Individual residents and business owners are urged to “adopt a block” of property and either rid it of graffiti themselves or donate money and materials to the city so employees such as Alcantar can take care of the problem.

“When we were doing research for what kind of program South Gate needed, we found that in most places the total responsibility for graffiti removal was placed on the city,” George said.

Now, with $250,000 of city money being used to combat graffiti, combined with the efforts of individuals and business owners, city residents say South Gate has some of the cleanest walls in the area.

“Graffiti used to be our biggest problem,” said Ana Pena, who manages a 13-unit apartment complex. “But this program has cleaned things up a lot, made it a lot easier for us to keep our property looking attractive. Now we worry more about tenants who just don’t pay their rent.”

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The League of United Latin American Citizens has honored several Southeast Los Angeles residents for community service. They are Jenny Oropeza, the first Latina elected to the Long Beach City Council; Margie Rodriguez-Diaz, Lakewood resident and community activist; Douglas X. Patino, Cal State University vice chancellor for university advancement, and Irma Archuleta, assistant director of the Cal State Long Beach Outreach program.

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Long Beach dentist E.B. Bush was honored by the Long Beach branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People for his contributions to civil rights. Bush is a deacon at Second Baptist Church in Long Beach. He has been chairman of the Long Beach Planning Commission since 1991 and is the panel’s first African American chairman. Other local NAACP award winners include Long Beach resident Lillie Grigsby; Gene Lentzner, chairman of a local DARE program; Carmen O. Perez, president of the Long Beach Harbor Commission, and Melvina Luke, former member of the Long Beach Mayor’s Task Force on AIDS.

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Long Beach resident Blanche Brewster was honored as Rick Racker Woman of the Year for her volunteer work. Brewster has worked with the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, the Long Beach Symphony Guild and is a 36-year YMCA board member.

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Candace Cunningham, a kindergarten teacher at Lakeview Elementary School in Santa Fe Springs, was selected 1994-95 Teacher of the Year in the Little Lake City School District. She was one of 12 Los Angeles County finalists for the state Teacher of the Year award.

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