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 wave of graffiti originates back in new york city in the 1970's,

where there was a war going on in the inner cities. it was really a true alienation from the dominant society in its institutions. many black and latino youngsters were isolated from the rest of society. the anchor and frustration of the south bronx and central brooklyn manifested itself through an explosion of graffiti tags in the subway system. one of the few societal elements of the larger society that traversed both communities. that act of defiance quickly spread throughout urban centers and was adopted by on people as a demonstration of a rite of passage. in recent years, we have seen the incidence of tagging growing, and more and more of the civic space and more and more of the public art is suffering the consequences. dpw, the police department, and

the arts commission, along with property owners, are all trapped in a vicious cycle of responding to the never-ending waves of graffiti attackers. our proposal today is to launch a response on two fronts. one is focused in the schools, targeting kids in the fourth through sixth grade, and the other is aimed at the taggers, the primary source of the vandalism. there is a generation of mature urban artists to understand the difference between creating urban art with permission and the deface meant that is represented by scrawling on -- defacement that is represented by scrawling on public walls without permission. initiative we are launching here today will enlist mature, urban artists and try to team them up, pierre them up with the young attackers who do not know any

better and get them to create works on designated walls. keith herring, whose artwork we're looking at here, started out as a tagger and eventually became an internationally recognized artist. we are hopeful that our street smarts initiative is going to be able to serve as a channel for some of this creative energy. i want to point out to all of you here, those who are interested in urban artists and want to participate in this program, or property owner and want to offer your wall voluntarily, we have the table. the arts commission has a table for you to enlist. become part of this program. there is a part of san francisco that represents a mural

initiative that began something that took off in the 1990's. it features many of -- minerals -- murals. it is a location for recognizing urban and graffiti esthetics of san francisco. it is in the mission area. it is also the host of an annual block party that celebrates the newest miro contributions. that is an example of work that is done with permission. the idea is that we will identify property owners who will offer their walls to the street smart program and allow us to link them up with urban artists and the youth team to create their works on those walls. the goal is to channel creative

energy that is out there and to channel it into a permission- based urban arts program that will get recognition to the young people. that is a fundamental element of motivation for attackers -- taggers. the second element of our approach is the where art lives school curriculum. next september, a number of elementary schools will be implementing a new curriculum that is designed to reach students in grades 4 through 6. the schools will be selected in areas where there is a concentration of tagging. the lesson? accomplish the following educational outcomes in the interest of graffiti education and vandalism prevention. the students understand. they will understand through this curriculum the concept of public and personal space and

the importance of differentiating between the two. the students exposed to this curriculum will examine the differences between creating art in a private space and vandalizing a public space, and the creation of public art. students will develop a basis for future decision making about achievement of public and private property. students will express the values of caring for public space and creating public art for their community. at the end of participating in that curriculum, they will be creating portable public murals that they will either have that the school or will be mounted in spaces that will be designated for that purpose. this will be another form of recognition for these and people.

you know, already, as a result of the interview that we did this morning, the arts commission has gotten several calls from private property owners volunteering walls for our street smart program. we hope to link an urban artist, like the artist whose work you see here, with taggers to creating new, permission-based work of urban art. i want to thank you for your kind attention and for your participation in the huddle today. we look forward to your additional ideas and suggestions. i do believe that if we are able to move from just reacting to this onslaught and wave of tagging to one in which we are engaging young people and helping them to learn the

difference between permission- based tagging, permission-based creation and tagging, that we will be able to start to get ahead of this curve of vandalism that the faces our community and our city. thank you very much. [applause] >> we still have a few minutes for questions and answers. david? i do not know where our microphones are. i can give you this one. here she comes. >> i have a question. what is the basis of your statement that higher criminal penalties are not a deterrent? from a vantage point of a homeowner and a participant

activist in the community for nine years of adopt a street, i have done everything. i have put cameras on my property. i volunteered to cover graffiti. there is an abandoned building that is constantly covered with an inch think phial of graffiti for 14 years. it gets old. it has been nine years since i have been and adopt a strict volunteer. i have been hit on my property eight times in one year on brick. it is very costly to remove $300, $600. i cannot afford it. i'm a senior citizen on a fixed income. i have $400 a month for food and discretionary spending. i try to live on $100 and spend $300. it is impossible. what penalties are there? how can we say, one conviction

is costing $20 million. that is a lot of frustration. >> [inaudible] >> hello? let me respond to your question by saying that when i said -- >> [unintelligible] >> hello? when i said criminal penalties are not a sufficient deterrent, we're still seeing a rise in this tagging and vandalism. we have to expand our options of response. we have to have continued and strong and vigilant prosecution of anyone caught doing this. in addition to th