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Blog Entry 1 of 3 Out And About The SCV

After bouncing around between various cities in southern California since moving here from the east coast in 1974, I decided to let my final roots settle in here. So in 1997, I moved to the Santa Clarita Valley. I started up a business in 2000 (Beedo Safety distributes a line of safety products and winter wear), and although most of our customers are still out of state, we are steadily growing the local clientele. Periodically, I will post my observations on happenings in the place I now consider home. http://www.BeedoSafety.com

Blog Url: http://valleynews.com/~BeedoSafety

Graffiti Graffiti Graffiti

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Contributed by: Mike Lee on 8/21/2006

I guess it is a sign of a city's age when graffiti lines begin to appear where once its face was tight and clean. But sometimes, people read graffiti incorrectly. Because there is so much of it to be found on the outskirts of downtown LA and other seedy areas, it's easy to equate graffiti with a deteriorating neighborhood or the emergence of gangs. And while that can be true, just as often, there is more to the story.

Santa Clarita has seen an increase in graffiti over the last couple of years, particularly on the Canyon Country side of town. Buildings have been defaced, signs have been marked up, buses have been tagged, restrooms have been violated, Water & Power pipes have been vandalized and re-vandalized, and trucks have been scarred again and again. Who is doing this? Well, if news reports provide any clues, in many cases, it seems the culprits are often normal kids. Your kids. In a city of peacefulness and a wonderful quality of life, many of the taggers are teenagers simply looking to find their own identity and make their own mark on the landscape. Or more specifically, to establish their "position" within their group of friends.

Our business has been hit repeatedly. And, usually, the graffiti that reappears is different from that which was last erased. But each time our truck is blemished, we follow the same pattern. We take a picture and then clean it off, and then email the picture to the Sheriff's Dept for their files. It's been our experience that the faster you clean it off, the longer the time until the next vandalist act. Last week, we were out of town on business, and when we returned, we found 3 separate tags on our truck. Three different signatures, in three different colors with three different tagging "tools". One act of vandalism apparently solicited a second which then solicted a third.

It's not only costly to repeatedly remove, it's also quite unnerving to find graffiti on personal property. Rarely has the entity that is defaced ever done anything to agitate the tagger to the act. Just being should not be cause to be violated, but that's what happens. Your property is there, it's clean and inviting, and so it is tagged. And when you add up all of the incidents, and the adverse impact on property values (estimated to be 15% or more), the economic impact of that $4 can of paint is tremendous. That said, I often wonder what goes through the mind of the tagger while he shakes his can of spray paint in anticipation of defacing more of our city. Does he realize that he is perhaps reducing the value of his parents' $400,000 home by $60,000? Does he even care?

Serial taggers often take pictures, and often keep scrapbooks with their deeds. And just as often, their parents don't have any suspicion that their good natured child is a vandal. None of us want to believe our own teenagers could commit such acts, but someone's kids are doing it. So all of us need to open our eyes and peek inside closets and under beds from time to time. One chance in many, we will find something. It will hurt when we do. But that's a part of being a parent.

The City of Santa Clarita offers tips on graffiti prevention on its website, and I encourage everyone to check it out. All of us need to do what we can to wipe out this problem before it gets too far out of control. Volunteer in clean-up efforts and report incidents when you witness them. We were recently voted one of the best cities to live in America. Together, we can keep it that way.

http://www.santa-clarita.com/cityhall/parks/graffiti.asp

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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments

Submitted By: larry bovard

posted on 3/15/2007 @ 11:30:40 AM

Rated Blog Entry

I feel the same about the graffiti. I remove it myself so that it won't germinate into a tag fest..Like other cities.

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Submitted By: Mike Lee

posted on 8/25/2006 @ 10:56:04 AM

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In some ways, that does not surprise me. This activity is really not limited to "gangs" anymore; SCV taggers often aren't who you would expect they might be. And I would not be shocked if it turned out that the tagger who recently marked up one of the "Thanks, Buck for HR5471" banners was an adult with a political agenda.

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Submitted By: Chris Austin

posted on 8/23/2006 @ 1:34:46 PM

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Hey Mike, Did you happen to see the Signal yesterday? They caught four taggers at Sierra Vista Jr. High early Monday morning. Their ages were 32, 28, 21, and 15! Tagging. Not just for teens anymore! These people should get a life! I was shocked.

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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments

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Mike Lee

Valencia , CA

Mike Lee has posted 3 blog entries and 4 comments since joining on 8/21/2006. Mike Lee 's average blog rating is 5.

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