Drawing by Jason Greenberg, 18 years old. He is a former tagger and occasional graffiti artist trying to go legit.

By Jim Berg

Graffiti is exploding across the Valley. One of its more recent victims is the Lankershlm Art Center. As I drive south on Lankershim Bl., the black spray paint appears as a cancerous blemish on the side of the building The tagger was thorough. He had to get on the roof of the building next door, and must have felt relatively safe from discovery to take the time, probably using the whole can.

The response to graffiti in the Valley has generally been one of one of anger and fear. Anger from property owners and taxpayers who have to pay for cleaning graffiti, and fear from parents who see graffiti as a harbinger of violent street gangs. The anger and fear borders on hysteria when combined with confusion and a sense of helplessness at not knowing how to stop it. The first reaction seems to be a kind of denial and blame. Denial that my children are involved and blame on someone else’s children, namely minority children.

For the most part, the Valley has turned to the L.A.P.D. to deal with the problem. In response, the police have promised stepped up enforcement – an empty promise at best in light of personnel shortages and budget cuts.

Graffiti is a huge problem involving thousands of our children. It is not something that can be dealt with by locking up a few of the bad apples. The whole barrel is tainted. The question is “Why are our children doing this?” This is a very important question because it presumes two things: first it is our children that are doing this, not their children. Second, this question presumes that there is reason for graffiti. Graffiti Is not a random act of vandalism. A tagger makes choices and has reasons for the choices he/she makes.

If we identify the perpetrator as one of them, and not as one of us, then we will never understand why they do what they do. If we do not understand why they do what they do, we will not be able to identify the best way to respond. Inevitably what results from an us/ them relationship is violence, and we have plenty of violence.

Given that we identify them as us, and that we are reasonable human beings (they are never reasonable, we are always reasonable), the next task is to find out why some of us are committing vandalism, much to the chagrin of the rest of us.

The solution to all problems of love and war is communication. Ask a tagger why he or she is tagging. The answers vary, and for the most part they make sense. Given the same circumstances, I might be a tagger or a gangmember also. By the way, watching the Five O’Clock News doesn’t count as communication. Communication means face to face interaction. Nobody else can do it for you.

If we have a problem in our neighborhood, that is where the solution is going to come from. It’s not going to come from City Hall or Parker Center. They might be able to help, but they won’t be able to solve our neighborhood problem. If ft’s left entirely up to them, they will probably do more harm than good. But if we work with them, great things can happen.

The North Hollywood Youth Council

The North Hollywood Youth Council can probably be best described as a coalition. It consists of representatives from L.A.P.D., L.A. County Probation Department, Community Youth Gang Services, the San Fernando Valley Partnership, Councilman John Ferraro’s office, Councilman Joel Wach’s office, and yours truly from the NoHo News. The goal of the NHYC is to deal with the increasing gang and graffiti problem in North Hollywood.

We received a call for help from the director of the Valley Plaza Recreation Center, which has a gang problem that has recently escalated to violence within the center Using the park facilities, the NHYC is creating a drop-in center for various programs that will create choices for kids. Given viable choices, kids will opt out of gangs and tagging. Too often, kids are tagging because they don’t have anything better to do. Many kids are involved in tagging in order to stay out of gangs. Our children need more and better choices. The NHYC is trying to create those choices.

The youth of North Hollywood have about fifty movie theaters to choose from, but not one youth center. After school, our youth are left to their own devices to find some-thing to do. Many of them are unsupervised by parents who have to work long hours. It is no coincidence that tagging and gangs are epidemic at the same time that public education is in crisis. The goal of the NHYC is to eventually open a youth center in North Hollywood that will provide programs that will keep kids off the street and give them viable alternatives to tagger crews and gangs.

On the shorter term, the NHYC is in need of a volunteer coordinator to help put together the various programs. If your are interested in dealing with one of the most pressing issues In this city, call or write this magazine. The NHYC is a good bunch of people who are serious about problem solving and we can use all the help we can get.

The drawing that graces the first page of this column was done by Jason Greenberg, 18 years old. He is a former tagger and occasional graffiti artist trying to go legit. He is a tremendous source of insight to the plight of youth today. If you were to meet him on the street, you might think he was a gang member. He is lucky – he has talent and he was given the opportunity to turn away from a very destructive path. There are many like him who aren’t so lucky. Choices about tagging, drugs, gangs, etc. shouldn’t be a matter of luck. My suggestion is that you don’t wait for somebody else to do something.