clean. if you are asked to serve on a graffiti trial jury, be willing and be very proud to serve. that will be another way of showing that you are concerned about graffiti and you take this crime seriously. you, the concerned citizen, can write letters to elected officials. they love receiving them. don't you? persuade them that graffiti vandals should be fine before committing a criminal act. currently, no fines are imposed in san francisco cases. other cities have fines. if you think of other ideas, do what has been suggested already. take one of those little stick- ums, posted in the back. dpw will make sure your questions are answered. there is another letter you can write. you can support bevin because he will see a justice in three

days. write him a letter. superior court judge, the presiding judge of the superior court. urge him to appoint a judge to hear all graffiti vandalism cases in san francisco. if repeat offenders have to appear before the same judge, the consequences might be greater. they could think more about it. there are many ways that you concerned citizens can get involved. all of you fit into our next category. i am sure you have all seen existing graffiti, whether it is on the side of the building, on a bus, a street sign, a restaurant, a mailbox, whatever. from now on, do not to say, don, there is another one. do not ignore it. please do something about that. reported to the city by calling 311. the call center is the city's clearing house for citizen

requests to remove graffiti. you can also report it by going online. sf311.com. it the graffiti is on public property, call 311. they will notify the appropriate department. that department has the responsibility of cleaning it up. if it is on private property, dpw will investigate and send a notice to the property owner with instructions to have it removed. now for a you -- you the witness. if you see a graffiti act in progress, but you're doing. it call 911. -- stop what you are doing. call 911. who, what, where? tell the operator, two men are spray-painted graffiti on a street sign at the corner of the streets. one is wearing a gray sweatshirt and the other one is wearing a

red jacket. please have the police respond. that is an example. the operator wants more, tell them to -- keep it concise. sometimes, 911 operators get so busy, they cannot answer your call right away. i know that. i have had that happen to me in the past. do not give up. if you cannot get through, be patient. 911 works. 911 graffiti calls have doubled the past two years in san francisco and arrests have also doubled. calling 911 can be very effective at reducing graffiti. when you call to report graffiti in progress, please do not confront the vandal. it may not be dangerous, but it could be. avoid that. the next thing you should do is try to take a picture of that graffiti act in progress. without the vandals seeing you, of course.

a still picture or video. still is easier to work with, but if you can get the deal, right. that can help authorities prosecute. if the criminals leave the area before police arrived, call the police department. 553-0123. tell them about the crime that has been committed. if you have taken pictures, they might suggest you e-mail them to the san francisco police department graffiti unit. their e-mail address is sfpd_ graffiti_unit@pacbell.net. you have all of this information in your packet. officers might come to your door to get the information, depending on how busy they are. you could be eligible for a $250 reward from the city's graffiti reports on that you provide information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of a graffiti vandal. to qualify, call 5 -- call 311

and ask for a reward claim form. you can download -- download one from the district attorney's website. be sure to get the police case number to apply. be willing in the future to cooperate with the prosecution of that vandal. there is one final you i would like to address. that is you, the perpetrator. the graffiti vandal. there might be one or more of you in this audience today. san francisco citizens are becoming less patient with your kind. they are learning more about you. they're learning that many of you are teenagers with low self- esteem. you become a tagger to achieve what your gang of vandals calls fame. san franciscans are learning that almost half of you graffiti vandals are in your 20's or early 30's when you do not live here. you come here to make a name for

yourself in your criminal culture. we are saddened by your belief that it is ok to break the law without considering the impact of your vandalism on victims. yes, we are even saddened by the fact that many of you are now serving time in prison because you really do not have to. the city knows, by the way, that you need more programs that will channel your creativity towards art and other constructive activities. it is difficult to find that money to pay for the programs. you as a vandal cost the city of san francisco more than $20 million a year in taxpayer money to clean up after you. san franciscans are becoming more vigilant about to endure vandalism. now is the time to give up your life of graffiti vandalism and channel your love of art into

legal ways of expressing it. whoever you are, homeowner, business operator, renter, a teacher, student, concerned citizen, a witness, you are being very good by supporting us today with your presence. dpw would like to thank you. you are showing your support for zero graffiti for a beautiful city. you can also show your support -- you will take a pledge. didn't your packet. get out this little card. -- dig out your packet. get out this little card. get out this card. follow along. what i'm going to do is read off the pledge out loud. you will see the tiny squares were you can check those areas where it is appropriate for you to get involved. do you have it out here? you are ahead of me. i hereby pledge to help make san

francisco a graffiti free city by committing to do one or more of the following. the first one is, report graffiti vandalism by calling 311 or visiting sfgov.org/311. i think you should check that one. please show your interest and your willingness to help. call 911 when i see graffiti vandalism in progress. please check that one. check it off. you have it in front of you. immediately report vandalism to my landlord when it appears in my building. if you are a renter, certainly. check it off. remove graffiti vandalism from my property within 48 hours. if you own your property, it works. they tend not to come back. check that one off if you are a homeowner. teach the children in my life that is wrong to write for make marks on other people's property. if you have children in your

family, or any children you know, check that one. join the graffiti what or adopt a street and help remove graffiti vandalism in my neighborhood. you might consider that. support and a graffiti legislation by writing or making phone calls to elected officials. please check that one off. that is how this democratic republic of ours works. everyone is involved in the process. i will serve on a jury for a graffiti vandalism case. i hope you check that one because it will help prosecute vandals. i want to to complete that pledge. maybe you did not do it all right now, but make sure you complete it and check off the ones important to you. i want you to fill in your name, your address, your telephone number, and your e-mail address. at the end of the social hour,

there will be a box at the door. leave it in that box. dpw can get in touch with you and make sure they work out the best way for you to be involved. ok? by the way, during the social hour, there will be an -- there will be anti-graffiti people in the room to answer questions. you have taken the pledge. you cannot get out of it. there is one more thing i would like to ask you to do. purge all of your san francisco neighbors and residents to also get involved in zero graffiti for a beautiful city. i bet enough -- i have given you enough suggestions for you that maybe something will click for you when you see graffiti. thank you for being involved. good luck to you. [applause] >> thank you, fred. thank you. i must tell you, we are all working hard to put together

this conference. it has been exciting because we got to work with so many people. it was through organizing this conference that i got to meet fred and talk to him about our program. i have met all kinds of different people i would not have met. the same thing happens as we take on the fight to eradicate all of this graffiti in our neighborhoods. it is my pleasure to introduce someone who i have worked with since i started my career with the city. i consider him my mentor because he was art director, but also someone who really cares a lot about our community, someone who has worked through the neighborhoods of san francisco, but has mentored me and taught me how to work with people, how to listen to people, and how to help. he always remind me that even though you work for the city, you work for everybody. you need to listen to everyone. he told me that whenever someone calls you, make sure that the

least you can do is call them back. he is now the city administrator. [applause] >> thank you. but afternoon. -- good afternoon. i also want to add my appreciation to dpw for all of its work. its culture, as i came into that office many years ago, to this day, continues having the highest commitment in helping all of our communities improve life for everybody. i also want to acknowledge again, as we have done earlier, the graffiti advisor report. -- board. we have spent hours trying to figure out how to do this better. we began the graffiti advice -- advisory committee and try to get attention to it. it is hard. you have to be committed.

i want to thank you for the hours you spend. most of those hours are after work. they are in the grind. they're concerned about every community. i also want to thank the district attorney's office, the city attorney's office. i want to thank our police department. most importantly, there are some many community groups out there struggling with this issue. there is a reason why we are here in this location today. i want to thank that hilton for sponsoring this effort. we are in chinatown for a number of different reasons. it is a destination for many visitors, but it also has a community here struggling with its own problems, everything from language to the economy, and also this a very huge problem about graffiti. as the president mentioned earlier, we picked chinatown to celebrate the second anniversary

of 311 for a reason. many of the residents here were not accessing 311, even though there is a language ability to access it, even though it can speak in chinese and respond in chinese. a lot of residents were not using it. of the 10,000 graffiti calls, very few were coming from chinatown residences for that reason. they were not knowledgeable about accessing 311. i want to make sure the media here and those of you hear from chinatown know you can use 311. it has the language capability of talking with you and making sure your reports and complaints are heard. in addition to that, in the months leading up to this conference, i had the opportunity to sit down and talk with the chinese chamber of commerce, chinese hospital, the asian contractors association, the chinatown portsmouth square rgarage, a number of business

institutions, and they all felt the strong victimization of being the helpless victim of these samples. guess what? in these discussions, it was very easy to hear the helplessness people have about this program. we talked with them about the conference and about how enlightened folks in san francisco will know how to follow the pledge that fred has so descriptive limeade. if everyone -- destructively -- descriptively made. if everyone of us follows that pledge and we are able to get help to do so, that victimization of being victims of this graffiti, i think, will be a great turning point. this is why we have this

conference today. at this panel, we are talking about some of the ideas we have. in those conversations with all of these chinatown grips, we decided we will be active. we are going to respond to this graffiti. we will be proactive in it. one of the ideas they came up with in talking with us -- and by the way, our office oversees 311. we work to make sure that every agency, not only the ones in the city family, but we're working with those agencies now outside of the city family. the caltrans of the world, the bart systems of the world, and the others. they have the same discipline of caring for their assets as we do in the city and making sure graffiti is wiped out. in working with 311 and the chinatown groups, we came up with a program that will begin

next week, the first of may, called operation chinatown wipeout. it takes the elements of the pledge, it takes what was described earlier in the first panel where david worked in one part of the area outside of "st. and takes certain elements and puts them together for the first time in the connect with a program that i run that i wanted to advise you of today. that is the community challenge grant program. for the next six months, we are going to have the white out program. it will work with a certain corridor of chinatown. it will capture this very concentrated effort where not only is the graffiti on the first level -- if you walk

outside today and if you were to be able to lift your head and looked just beyond the facades that we called chinatown and see the second and third levels, you will notknow, just like the shot film had, what the development centers struggling with is the attacking that occurs on the roof levels and the upper walls and on the facades above what the tourists see. you will find how difficult it is to deal with that graffiti because it is on historic brick facades. it is on windows that cannot be reached. it literally takes people to get to those floors with lifts. that is why the property owners and the family associations and the chinese chamber of commerce appeal to us for a little help in doing this. what the community challenge grant does come it is half a

million dollars a year we get from people such as yourself, and they are checking off a box on tax forms saying they will donate some of their taxes to this fund. it is a fund that is for the residents of san francisco the challenges you community by community that if there is a group of you who need that extra help to beautify your area of the city, be it chinatown or elsewhere, a panel of people will select projects throughout, be it mural's or just assistance in graffiti removal, and utilizing the pledge that we have today combined with the groups that have registered their need for help, combined with our funding, we put this altogether. we created this operation chinatown wipe out that will begin next week. we will make every property owner and every merchant who joins -- we will give them the assistance.

you will get the paint, you'll get the brushes, but you will also get training and how to properly use 311 and 911. you'll get training on how to immediately remove graffiti on your own at ground level. an exchange with you're doing your part to challenge, we will come forth with a contractor to take care of the difficult parts of your buildings for six months. with that, we believe that the awareness and the participation and cooperation from residents and merchants will be that much more heightened and that much more cooperative such that the warning to those graffiti vandals will be real. we will have more eyes and ears out there, not only of those who can speak english, but eyes and ears of those who can speak chinese, and join in the effort to have zero graffiti in our beautiful city.

i want to announce the launching of that, the cooperation we are getting from chinatown, and the fact that we will end it here in chinatown as well. the grant is there for your assistance as well. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. for many years, i get called to do a radio debate, all kinds of debates. they always have some vandal trying to explain to me why what they are doing is right and that kind of stuff. i keep on scratch my head saying, i do not understand why these vandals are defacing other people's property. it is that simple. is it that they do not have a place to go? what is going on? anyway, i have had the opportunity to meet someone that has been having a lot of discussions about what to do with these vandals.

is it a place to go? is it lack of training from when they were young? i am trying to figure this out. throughout the process, i was able to meet lewis, the director of the commission cultural program. i said, we are having this today. why don't you come and share with us your thoughts on why these metals are committing these acts. maybe we can design a program or something for people who feel they have a need to express themselves that can go and do something with the art commission. please give him a hand. [applause] >> thank you. really, it is a pleasure for me to be joining. the department of public works, the police department, the district attorney's office, the board of supervisors, and all of the various organizations and

entities that you represent here in this zero graffiti initiative. several of our speakers have alluded to today -- really, it is time to begin to move from a totally reactive posture to one that is proactive. part of what you have been hearing this afternoon and that i am going to walk you through are a couple of efforts now with the support of the department of public works that will help to change our position from totally being reactive all the time to one that is more proactive. it is really a pleasure for me to be able to share with you how the san francisco arts commission hopes to reach several populations, but starting with the students in our public schools, to provide them with a perspective that values private property and public art.

we have a visual slide show here. i will signal our friends over there when i need the next line. giving a little perspective to our talk today, i thought it was important for us to understand that our city is blessed with a wealth of public monuments and public art. it is a sign that the vast majority of san franciscans really take a healthy interest in civic participation and give importance to the health, look, and feel of the civic space. we have a history of adopting ordinances, like the one that was adopted 40 years ago. that ordinance directs public agencies to invest in public art. this law is part of an older tradition that harkens back to the 1930's when the city embraced several public murals,

like the beach shall lake that was greeted in 1936 that was greeted as part [unintelligible] american artists were joined by international artists in creating murals in both private and public spaces. they helped to set a high standard that we use in measuring public art today. through the heart and richmond law, san francisco has added hundreds of artworks to these of the collection, a collection that adds up to more than 3000 works. the ordinance provides for 2% of the construction costs of civic buildings like the new recreation center that we see here to be allocated for public

art. san francisco's international reputation as a cultural center and a haven for creative expression is directly linked to this tradition of public art, a muralism, and is a friendly home for artists and arts organizations. visitors to our city see it and feel at the moment they get off the plane. as we discussed today, if possible set of responses to the assaults by graffiti taggers on civic space, we cannot lose sight of the strength that we have in the realm of public art. the arts commission believed that one of the tools we can use against graffiti tagging is to make our young people aware of the treasures that surround them in their neighborhood. works of art like where the land meets the sea that you see here and that was installed last year

by the california academy of science -- all of us here today are fully aware of the negative effect that graffiti attackers have on private property owners and public monuments and facilities. the cost to the city is running into the millions of dollars to clean up after each deface meant incident. the cost of property owners includes both time and money. it is clear that the criminal penalties that have not been enough of a deterrent. it is incumbent upon us now to introduce some new tools in our efforts to combat graffiti. if we continue to just be reactive, both the tax payers and the property owners will continue to bear the cost of abatement. graffiti has been a part of

western civilization since the formation of cities. recent excavations in the great pyramid of v-chip have on earth dinner chambers with the names of the work crews that laid the great stones. the same is true if you examine larger roman construction projects. it seems that whenever you have sort of a concentration of power and you have a group that feels disenfranchised, these conditions, these set the conditions for spontaneous inscription of identity. in ancient rome, when you had a written message for the public, you scratched it on a wall. there were no fax machines. there were no photocopiers. there were no newspapers for you to get your opinions across. you used the walls. the walls at pompeii, preserved for 2000 years under volcanic

ash, are marked with numerous examples of this roman custom. here is some translated graffiti from pompeii. i think you're going to get the gist of how similar this patroness. one of the translated inscriptions was "success is here." another one was someone's name. another one was a political campaign. finally, as long as you had graffiti, you have had the critics of graffiti. "i am amazed that you have not collapsed and fallen, o wall, since you bear the tedious stupidities of so many scrawlers." in the modern era, the current wa