City’s anti-graffiti scrubber never runs out of work

By MARSHA DORGAN
Register Staff Writer

A group is on the rampage painting the town, and it’s costing Napa taxpayers big bucks.

Graffiti has long been a problem for almost every city, including Napa. But in the past few months — especially since the start of summer vacation — gang members, taggers and skaters have been busy leaving their marks all over town.

Graffiti removal falls under the city public works jurisdiction. The actual job of cleaning up the eyesore scribblings falls on the shoulders of one city employee — Bob.

Because of fear of retaliation from the graffiti gang, the Register agreed to use just the first names of the city employees assigned to the graffiti abatement unit.

Bob works five days a week, eight hours a day and is paid $30 an hour to power wash or paint over graffiti. “We spend about $10,000 a year on equipment and supplies,” said Jeff, Napa city street field supervisor.

“Bob started out two and half years ago, part time ... three to four days a week,” Jeff said. “But it didn’t take long until we had to put him on full time. There’s a lot — I mean a lot — of graffiti out there.”

Almost any spot is fair game for graffiti.

“Houses, fences, walls, sidewalks, signs, cars, utility boxes, you name it,” Jeff said. “If it doesn’t move, they’ll tag it.”

Graffiti falls into three categories — marks linked to gang members, taggers or skaters.

Gang graffiti is most prevalent in the west and east sides of town.

“The gangbangers are marking their territory with gang graffiti such a BPM, for Brown Pride Mexicans. And there is always the Roman numerals of 13 (XIII) and 14 (XIV) for the Nortenos and Surenos,” Bob said. “Sometimes gang members will tag their signs in the rival gang’s territory to let them know they were there. It’s heavy in the Westwood area, Old Sonoma Road, Freeway Drive, Pine Street. Hickory Street has got hit hard recently.”

But tagging usually is not gang related, Jeff said.

“They just want their names out there. They want recognition. They want to see who can be the biggest, the boldest.”

Skaters are much the same as taggers, except they do their dirty work where they hang out with their skateboards, Bob said. “The skateboard park is a favorite place for them.”

The new bike path that runs from California Boulevard to Main Street, paralleling the Wine Train tracks, is a constant target, Bob said. “There is a lot of profanity on the concrete wall along the path. That is one of my almost daily clean-up spots.”

Most graffiti is done with spray paint. Some taggers use felt markers and other just use plain old paint, Bob said. “If it will leave a mark, they will use it.”

It is illegal for anyone under 18 to purchase cans of spray paint.

Cleaning the graffiti demands a “lot of elbow grease. We use a high-power pressure washer to get rid of some and we also have to paint over a lot of it. We try the best we can to match the paint we use with the original paint.”

The removal of graffiti on private property is the owner’s responsibility.

Once the city is made aware of the graffiti, it sends a letter to property owners, giving them seven days to remove the graffiti. If they don’t comply, the city hires a private contractor to do the job and bills the property owners. If they refuse to pay for services, they find a lien on the property.

“It’s almost always removed when the property owner receives the notice. People who live in Napa enjoy having a clean city. They don’t want to look at the graffiti any more than anyone else does,” Bob said.

Nailing the graffiti culprits is another story.

“Everyone sees the graffiti, but hardly anyone ever sees it happening. Most of it happens in the night hours. Take the graffiti on the overcrossings on Highway 29, they use homemade climbing stuff or they hold each other as one guy hangs upside down from the overcrossing doing the graffiti with one of his friends holding his legs,” Bob said. “As far as we know, no one has ever been seriously injured.”

Napa police have the job of nabbing the graffiti violators.

Although some of the graffiti may look as if it takes hours to create, that’s not how it really is, according to Napa Police Sgt. Debbie Peecook.

“It just takes seconds to leave their mark. They are not really good artists. And since it happens mostly at night, we hardly ever have any witnesses,” Peecook said. “We don’t make a lot of arrests. If we see someone doing graffiti, they are prepared to run and hide. They usually have several people who serve as lookouts.”

Graffiti is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine and county jail time.

Most of the graffiti tips come from the hotline. “I usually get up to 10 calls a day. That’s in addition to the ones I receive from the city, such as a city maintenance guy will be out mowing a lawn in the park and call me to say the park has been hit hard,” Bob said. “I try to get the graffiti cleaned up within 24 hours of getting the call.”

Life is not easy for a graffiti abatement employee.

“It can get ugly out there, especially with the gangbangers. They don’t like to see their work covered up. I have been harassed a lot, lots of profanity. I’ve even been hit with eggs, peaches and lots of verbal harassment,” Bob said.

But he doesn’t let that keep him from doing his job.

“I’m a pretty easygoing guy. There are lot more things out there in the world to get upset over than being harassed by a bunch of gangbangers or cleaning up graffiti,” he said. “It’s a job and someone has to do it. In this case, that person is me.”

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