WESTLAKE : Activism and Vines Help Repel Taggers

Frustration has turned to celebration for 3rd Street neighbors who banded together to enlist the city in their fight against vandals.

The walls that line the stretch of 3rd near Reno Street had become a favorite canvas for gang tagging crews, who loitered outside the residences late at night.

After months of fruitless phone calls to the overburdened Rampart division, Leandro Cordova, Sam Floyd and about 15 other residents invited City Council and police representatives to Cordova’s home to hear their complaints.

Their efforts paid off: Last weekend the city provided creeping vines for the community to plant to obscure the walls and make them unsuitable for tagging.

“We’ve learned not to listen to people who tell us this can’t be done,” Cordova said last week after helping neighbors, police officers and members of about 20 community organizations plant the vines.

The April meeting was attended by representatives of Mayor Richard Riordan and City Council members Mike Hernandez and Jackie Goldberg, as well as several Rampart division officers.

One of those was Officer Webster Wong, who obtained a donation of vines from a Rosemead nursery and worked with the three offices to coordinate the planting effort.

More vines will eventually be planted to cover walls along 3rd Street between Western and Union avenues, Wong said.

In addition to helping obtain and plant the vines, Cordova said, Rampart officers are responding to his phone calls more now that they know of his efforts. The patrol cars are scaring off some of the vandals, he said.

Just a few months ago, Cordova had grown so frustrated with the gang members that he tried to drive them away himself.

They responded by throwing steel lug nuts through his windows as a warning to leave them alone.

Cordova and his neighbors have vowed to keep up their newfound activism. They have formed a neighborhood watch, the 3rd Street Coalition, and are trying to mobilize other residents to get in touch with their City Council representatives and police.

Cordova offers this advice: “Just keep demanding.”