Clean-up drive

Efforts to spruce up local neighborhood acquire momentum

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With cautious optimism, about a dozen and a half residents of the Vegas Manor area agreed recently to create a neighborhood organization that can ensure a continuing effort to combat graffiti and other blight affecting their community.

The group agreed to meet again at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Hollywood Neighborhood Services Center, 1650 S. Hollywood Blvd., to formally organize themselves.

Vegas Manor, which also is referred to by police as "the state streets," after the street names in the area, lies generally east of U.S. Highway 95, west of Nellis Boulevard, south of Charleston Boulevard and north of Sahara Avenue.

For the past two weeks, it has been the site of an intense and ongoing effort to blot out graffiti, remove abandoned or improperly stored vehicles and generally spruce up the neighborhood.

Clark County officials chose the neighborhood's Joe Shoong Park to hold a March 15 press conference announcing new valleywide efforts to fight graffiti.

County liaison Russell Davis told the neighborhood group on March 21 that the county can offer a lot of resources, but it is up to the residents to establish a local organization that can set priorities and lobby county officials for solutions.

Davis said a similar effort in the Parkdale neighborhood just east of Boulder Station has worked. Referring to Vegas Manor's problems, he said, "We need to knock it down and get it down to a level where you can manage it ... We need to get everyone on the same page, working toward a solution."

He admitted to neighborhood resident Jean Phlegar that in some ways the county has failed to take the lead in code enforcement and anti-tagging efforts.

"We're complaint-driven," Davis said, "we're not pro-active."

Davis said earlier that Vegas Manor had indicated a real desire to clean itself up.

"We've received numerous calls about graffiti and the overall appearance of the neighborhood, and this is a response to that," he said. "There are a lot of people who care about this neighborhood and want to see it change. They need our resources. It's probably our No. 1 neighborhood where we get complaints of graffiti."

During the first few days of the clean-up effort, the scope of the problems became clear. Davis said that as of March 21, a total of 197 traffic control signs were identified as so damaged they would need to be replaced, and roughly 100 abandoned vehicles of all sorts were tagged for removal from the streets or yards.

Just over 100 instances of graffiti had been identified, and Davis said the cost of cleaning them up will amount to nearly $30,000.

The residents who attended the March 21 meeting expressed a number of concerns to Davis, as well as to two members of the Metropolitan Police Department's TNT (Targeting Neighborhood Tagging) team, which is aiding in the Vegas Manor clean-up.

Resident Belinda Hutchings related how she had called police as she watched a half-dozen taggers do their work one recent evening, but when an officer finally arrived, she was utterly let down.

"The officer pulled in," she said, "and talked to them and turned every one of them loose."

Officer James Rogan apologized for that and said he will attempt to determine who responded to the call.

Phlegar questioned whether new laws and stiffer penalties, which county officials discussed at the March 15 press conference, will make much difference if district attorneys and judges fail to take graffiti more seriously.

Rogan and colleague Ryan Jaeger said more and more such officials are getting the message and recognizing the need for law enforcement efforts that are not short-circuited in the court system.

Hutchings' son, David Hutchings, 13, suggested anti-tagging education at an early age is needed as a preventive measure. With video games like "Grand Theft Auto" on the market, he said, young people just don't appreciate the seriousness of the problem.

"It's a giant game to them," he said.

One resident suggested those caught tagging be told to clean it up with a toothbrush, but so far community service of that sort is not mandatory, and Rogan said some suspects prefer a few days in jail.

He added, however, that mandatory service might have a salutary effect. "Some taggers are painting over a wash area," he said of one case, "and they're getting sick of it."

The age of many suspects also hinders enforcement efforts, said Rogan. "A lot of them are juveniles, and they're out the same day (they're arrested)," he said. "We're working on that, but it's tough."

Davis stressed the need for better education at all levels -- among schoolchildren, judges, prosecutors, residents and so on -- and authentic penalties for those who are caught and convicted. The alternative is frustration for all concerned.

"There's no use telling the kids not to do this," he said, "when they're just going to say, 'Why? You're not going to do anything about it anyway.' "

But Rogan and Yaeger also told the residents that they can help by providing information and keeping an eye on what goes on in their neighborhoods. They also cautioned the residents against confronting taggers. It's best, they said, to call the police and let officers handle suspects.

Even as the two officers spoke, Rogan received a telephone call from another officer.

"They just caught a tagger in your neighborhood," Davis announced moments later. "He just got the call."

Yaeger said information about graffiti and tagging suspects can lead to worthwhile intelligence for police. Even indirect evidence can be important in building cases.

"We don't have to catch them in the act," he said.

Rogan said the residents have a lot of clout if they wish to use it. "You guys can act as your own neighborhood association," he said.

"That's what we want to turn this into," echoed Davis, "you guys becoming your own neighborhood."

In many cases, said Yaeger, if residents don't call the police about a given problem, then the police have no idea the problem exists.

Remember, all three said, that a lot of officials, such as judges and county commissioners, are elected and responsive to political pressure from their constituents.