Santa Ana City Council to discuss proposed anti-graffiti ordinance on Monday

Will Santa Ana Graffiti fighter Thomas Gordon get his way on Monday?

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“A proposed law drawn up by community members to combat this city’s chronic graffiti problem will get an initial hearing before the City Council on Monday,” according to the O.C. Register.

The meeting is open to the public and begins at 6 p.m. in the Police Department’s community room, 60 Civic Center Plaza.

I can understand the anger towards graffiti – but we already have laws on the books and guess what?  The taggers don’t care.  And the cops don’t arrest them and the city doesn’t prosecute them.  Why does anyone think that a batch of new laws will make a damn bit of difference?

Instead of addressing the underlying rot in our city, the Usual Suspects advancing the new anti-graffiti ordinance want to put a band aid on the problems and pretend that will help.  It won’t.

How many new parks have we opened in the last five to ten years?  How many new libraries have we opened?  How many new affordable housing units have we built in Santa Ana?

Poverty leads to hopelessness.  Hopelessness leads to despair.  Despair leads to crime.  Passing more laws to punish kids who don’t have career paths and who don’t see a future worth living for won’t help.

I have said this before and it bears repeating – how about setting up free art classes in the Artists Village and inviting taggers to take these classes?  How many Andy Warhols will we miss out on as they spiral downwards in lives of crime for a lack of opportunity?

Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido has tried for over twenty years to gentrify his way out of this mess.  Hey Pulido – new tennis courts and a publicly financed Artists Village won’t help – not when you exclude the very people who need the most help.  Pretending these problems don’t exist is not a solution!


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"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.