By Keith Sharward, Co-Founder and Board Member
After a very rough number of weeks in which Sump 17 — and much of Gateway West and Park View for that matter — were subjected to extreme amounts and types of graffiti, much of which was related to one of Sacramento’s most notorious street gang organizations, it is my pleasure to report a monthlong reprieve from graffiti in our neighborhoods.
Though speculative, I believe our association’s efforts to educate our fellow neighbors about the criticality of timely reporting of graffiti to our city’s 3-1-1 call enter for action, city graffiti abatement and maintenance staff responding quickly and decisively to the concerns, neighbors in the area of Shrike Circle maintaining a diligent watch on the property, and numerous proactive and reactive responses from our police department to deal aggressively with illegal after-dark loitering in the park, all have contributed to this positive trend.
I don’t think we should declare an outright victory on the issue just yet — it’s probably too soon for that, as there have still been observations of possible narcotics activity in our parks over the past week or two… But we’re definitely moving in the right direction.
The war to protect our neighborhoods from these infuences isn’t over, but I think it’s safe at this point to say that we have won this latest battle, and I thank everyone who has participated. Whether in a big way by hitting the pavement on outreach efforts and participating in last month’s overnight stakeout of Sump 17, or in a small way by calling 3-1-1 quickly to report a tag sighting, all of your efforts in aggregate translate to a strong statement to the punks and thugs responsible for these acts that we are NOT a neighborhood that will tolerate it.
I have always believed that, in a crisis, you learn who your real friends are. Well, I think our neighborhood recently found itself in a graffiti crisis and we definitely made some new friends and reinforced some of our existing ones.
There are still some loose ends to tie up. We need to follow up with the city on recommendations to increase security at Sump 17 with better lighting and other items. There’s still more outreach opportunity in the areas around our parks. So I hope that we can use this recent win not as an excuse to rest, but rather, to motivate us to do more. We need to stockpile for the next battle per se — our weapon of choice is people: paying attention, spreading the word, reporting suspicious activities and after-dark park occupation to police and each other, and reporting vandalism to 3-1-1.
And the coolest part of that is… We make new friends in the process.