Fighting Graffiti

An anti-blight task force will canvas Cathedral City in a couple of months to begin clearing areas of illegal dumping, transient camps and graffiti, among other problems.

The six-member team will be established at a start-up cost of $500,000 and will cost $630,000 a year to operate, said Capt. John Holcomb of the Cathedral City Police Department, who wrote the task force plans.
He said the initial funds will cover the purchase of vehicles, equipment and remodeling office space. "The lion's share" of the yearly operating funds will pay for personnel, Holcomb said.
One of its major tasks will be ridding the city of its graffiti.
Holcomb said the team will address the problem from top to bottom: identifying incidents, following through with prosecution against perpetrators and ensuring the process isn't repeated.
For residents of the Rio Vista area, the task force couldn't come at a better time.
At night, some blocks in the quiet neighborhood in the northwest corner of Cathedral City are marred with graffiti by taggers and gangbangers.
"We spend a lot of money on our homes," said William Marshall, a three-year resident of Rio Vista. "I'd like to see this neighborhood progress instead of deteriorate. You wake up in the morning and there it is."
Often when Marshall steps out onto his finely manicured front yard in the morning, new markings have been made over the existing patches of paint on the wall across the street from him, a canvas for gangsters and taggers used repeatedly to claim territory or attain street fame.
"There's a lot of tagging going on right now between two rival gangs," Holcomb said. "Depending what catalyst might spark agitation between the gangs, they're talking to each other out on those walls."
Neighbors agree that the rash of graffiti has created an uneasy feeling and hurt property values in an already-struggling market.
"We're getting nervous. It's getting bad," said Jeneil Smith, 60, who has been living in Rio Vista for two years. "We all try to take care of our lawns and well, how do you do it?"
Holcomb recommends that neighbors report any graffiti as soon as it occurs, no matter the size of the scribble.
The city does not paint over privately owned businesses and residences, unless the property is vacant, abandoned or the spray-painted area meets the sidewalk.
"Property owners have to match up paint and cover their own graffiti," said Donna St. Onge, one of five city code enforcement officers who trades in her uniform for a pair of painter's overalls once a week to go out and cover up graffiti. "It seems a little unfair for residents sometimes, but we're all taking the blunt end of this. It's a burden, an eyesore, a nuisance."