Our view: Cities, law enforcers, and especially community must work together to wipe out tagging

Of the armies laying siege to North County's good fortunes, perhaps none is so ubiquitous as the purveyors of graffiti that stains public and private property in every local community. These aesthetic assaults should be recognized for the true threats to community stability they are. What's more, every segment of the community shares responsibility for putting a cap on the aerosol cans and markers defacing North County's future.

Look around and you'll see them, the mostly indecipherable messages scrawled on fences, sidewalks, storefronts and billboards across every North County community. While their meanings may escape most of us, graffiti "tags" communicate clearly enough to their intended audiences -- other taggers and rival gangs, in most cases. Whether their intent is criminal or just merely obscene, whether they signify frustrated artists or intimidating gangs, they all say the same thing: "This neighborhood is ours, not yours. The fate of this street where you live/work/shop is not in your hands, it's in ours."

And make no mistake, graffiti is a real threat to one of North County's most valuable assets -- our lofty property values.

A 2003 study by a London School of Economics lecturer found that residential property values in London dropped 1.6 percent for every 10 reported incidents of graffiti. Other studies have shown commercial property values drop in value by about $10,000 for every $1,000 their owners spend each year to wipe out graffiti. The unprecedented turnaround in all kinds of crime experienced by New York City in the 1990s is often largely attributed to that city's leaders employing the "broken windows" approach to crimefighting, which began with the removal from service and quick cleanup of New York's graffiti-covered subway cars.

Across North County, our eyes tell us graffiti is on the rise. Some can be attributed to new gangs trying to stake out turf of their own; if you see tags crossed out and replaced with another gang's symbols, you might have come across a contested border. Witness the skyrocketing number of calls to Escondido's graffiti hotline over the last two years: from 118 in January 2004 to 341 in January 2005 to 612 last January.

North County Times reporter Jo Moreland surveyed the myriad ways in which North County cities are trying to address the graffiti epidemic. Many cities are gathering forces in task forces, many are beefing up their police investigations, and many are sending more public workers out into North County streets to wipe out graffiti. We applaud all these efforts.

But they're not enough, not by a long shot, without your help. Of course, local governments are responsible for keeping public property free from graffiti, but as the keepers of public safety, they also have a responsibility to protect private properties from the graffiti menace, as well. To stop graffiti, it's not enough to wipe off what's been written; we must catch the criminals and prevent them from doing it again.

That's where you come in. Taggers can't thrive in communities that won't tolerate them. The more residents realize that their homes and communities are threatened by the tagging and how long graffiti tags are allowed to linger, the more residents will become part of the solution. Listed below are the numbers you can call to report graffiti incidents after they happen; these numbers should result in someone from your local government coming to remove the graffiti. But if you see a crime in progress, call 911.

Graffiti removal phone numbers:

Carlsbad -- (760) 434-6700

Del Mar -- (858) 755-3294

Encinitas -- (760) 633-2751

Fallbrook -- (760) 728-3911

Escondido -- (760) 839-4668

Oceanside -- (760) 435-4200

Poway -- Public property, (858) 668-4700; private property, (858) 668-4668

San Diego -- (619) 525-8522

San Marcos -- (760) 591-9100

Solana Beach -- (858) 720-2507

Unincorporated San Diego County -- (877) 684-8000

Vista -- (760) 726-1340, Ext. 1611