Community members can help keep Ventura safe and clean by reporting graffiti
by city staff
City of Ventura Public Works staff removed, painted, blasted or chemically treated 2,757 graffiti cases last fiscal year. Outfitted with paint, rollers, gloves and environmentally safe cleaner, the team travels throughout the city responding to issues reported by other staff, attentive community members and tips received on the graffiti hotline. The graffiti removal efforts are impressive, and so is the time frame in which they are cleaned up. Nearly all graffiti instances are removed within 24-48 hours, which is a testament to the City’s great work in keeping Ventura safe and clean.
In addition to our Public Works team removing graffiti, the Ventura Police Department responds to calls for service related to graffiti, tagging, and spray paint. From April 2016 through March 2017, Ventura Police filed 156 graffiti/tagger crime reports and arrested nine people for graffiti vandalism.
In 2012, the City of Ventura collaborated with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and Union Pacific Railroad to remove graffiti with a shiny new coat of paint, install surveillance cameras, new lighting and fencing, and add other physical safety barriers to deter trespassers and vandalism on the bridge trestle. The trestle is an important area to remove graffiti — it is highly visible to visitors and the 94,000 motorists who pass it each day.
Nearly five years later, the City remains committed to keeping the bridge and other locations throughout Ventura graffiti-free. Recently, Public Works staff removed approximately 25 square feet of graffiti on the trestle, which required coordination with Union Pacific Railroad, Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol because freeway lanes needed to be closed for public safety during the graffiti abatement.
Graffiti vandalism happens on both public and private property. Property owners can discourage graffiti tagging by using good lighting to deter vandals, planting trees, shrubs or climbing vines to restrict access to tempting walls, and rapidly removing graffiti to send vandals a message that their defacement has little chance of being seen.
Community members can help keep Ventura safe and clean by reporting graffiti in the City of Ventura, at 654-7805.
