Merchants Worry About Negative Effects of Recent Graffiti Attacks

The twitchy scrawls of spray paint blanketing a downtown building Monday, local merchants fear, could send a message to shoppers: Stay away.

For the second time in three weeks, taggers hit the Moorpark Professional Center on Moorpark Avenue on Sunday night or Monday morning, lacing the windows and walls of the building’s first floor with gang graffiti.

Only one other nearby building was struck in the painting spree, which police suspect served as an initiation rite for new recruits of a local gang.

Three weeks ago, the damage was much worse, with stores and offices along four blocks of Moorpark Avenue hit.

By midafternoon Monday, the center’s manager had removed most of the thin, tan-colored paint, scraping it off the windows with a razor and soaking metal door frames with turpentine to remove the marks.

But the office workers and merchants who work in the building worried that if the attacks continue, they could hurt the reputation of the city’s already struggling downtown business district and drive customers away.

“When you have graffiti showing up on the sides of your office window, that would deter people,” said insurance agent Ron Noble, whose office on the center’s second floor was spared.

Sheriff’s deputies who patrol Moorpark said Monday that the vandalism occurred between 7:30 p.m. Sunday and 1 a.m. Monday. Senior Deputy Ed Tumbleson said the new graffiti resembled the marks left two weeks ago.

“It appears to be the same color and the same stuff written as last time,” he said. “We’ll put this in with the case from last time and investigate the two together.”

No one has been arrested in connection with the previous incident, he said.

Downtown merchants say they already face a public perception that the area is dangerous, or at least has more crime problems than the newer shopping strip along Los Angeles Avenue. A recent survey of Moorpark residents, conducted as part of city efforts to revitalize the downtown, found that many consider the area unsafe, especially at night.

Richard J. Tate, who manages the professional center and has an office on the first floor, said he has had few problems in the 13 years he has worked in the building. He said he did not know of any assaults or car burglaries at the center.

“I can say it really isn’t a high-crime area,” he said. “I think the tenants in this building feel safe, as a rule.”

But graffiti’s sudden appearance can flash a quick and powerful visual message that an area has a crime problem.

“If left untouched, it will lead to other things,” said Moorpark Mayor Patrick Hunter, who also serves as a sergeant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. If the paint stays in place for long, he said, it could lead to more serious vandalism, such as broken windows.

“You’ve sent a message that you don’t care about this particular neighborhood,” Hunter said. “That’s why it’s important to remove it immediately.”