REPAINTING THE TOWN; EX-MARINE FIGHTS FOR CLEAN WALLS.Byline: Michael Coit Staff Writer Rusty Blue, a clattering clat·ter v. clat·tered, clat·ter·ing, clat·ters v.intr. 1. To make a rattling sound. 2. To move with a rattling sound: clattering along on roller skates. '55 Chevrolet pickup, was back on the streets on a hot weekday morning carrying Joe Lozano's weapons of choice: paint buckets and rollers. He is at war on graffiti. The onetime Marine Corps sergeant makes weekly, sometimes daily, advances against the scourge of scrawls on freeway underpasses and on the walls and fences of homes and businesses along streets and alleys in his patch of the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . Property owners and police officers appreciate Lozano's zeal in painting over tags, slogans and challenges spray-painted by vandals and gang members. He also is a welcome ally of Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. graffiti abatement A reduction, a decrease, or a diminution. The suspension or cessation, in whole or in part, of a continuing charge, such as rent. With respect to estates, an abatement is a proportional diminution or reduction of the monetary legacies, a disposition of property by will, when contractors, hard-pressed to meet the city's 24-hour zero-tolerance standard. ``I hate graffiti. The sooner you get to it, that discourages them. I've gotten to it when the paint was still fresh,'' said the 63-year-old retired movie studio carpenter as he slowed his pickup to one of his stops. Lozano soaked soak v. soaked, soak·ing, soaks v.tr. 1. a. To make thoroughly wet or saturated by or as if by placing in liquid. b. To immerse in liquid for a period of time. 2. a roller in a tall commercial can of whale-gray paint and blotted out Adj. 1. blotted out - reduced to nothingness obliterate, obliterated destroyed - spoiled or ruined or demolished; "war left many cities destroyed"; "Alzheimer's is responsible for her destroyed mind" a black scrawl of zig-zagging and looping writing on an off-white block wall separating a back yard from Chatsworth Avenue. Then he was off to a strip mall strip mall n. A shopping complex containing a row of various stores, businesses, and restaurants that usually open onto a common parking lot. Noun 1. on Laurel Canyon Boulevard Laurel Canyon Boulevard is a major street in the city of Los Angeles, California. It starts off at Polk Street in Sylmar in the northern San Fernando Valley near the junction of the San Diego (Interstate 405) and the Golden State Freeways (Interstate 5). , where he used white paint to cover a more ambitious series of silver gang writing on the center's wide white rear wall. In less than 30 minutes, Lozano had killed the effect of the graffiti. But he also recognized that he provided a fresh canvas. ``I see them sometimes, but I back off. Graffiti is horrible, but I don't think it's worth a person's life,'' he said. ``I didn't get this old from being stupid.'' Police say Lozano underestimates the value of his own activism, even among vandals and gang members who might know about the Pacoima native's passion. Circle of influence ``Joe's been around for so long . . . (that) he's very well known in the community, and he's got a circle of influence that spans several generations,'' said Sgt. Tim Walters, who coordinates community policing for the Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . in
the Mission Hills area.
Officers yearn for more people to develop the territorial imperative that prompts Lozano to keep working for solution of a problem, Walters said. ``Joe's a perfect example of the community spirit. He doesn't want the community and the people to look like they don't care
"Don't Care" is a 1994 (see 1994 in music) single by American death metal band Obituary. .'' One man can make a difference even in an area where city crews need several days or a week to catch up with spurts of graffiti, said Cecilia Barragan of the group Valley Organized In Community Efforts. VOICE helped push for the city's zero-tolerance abatement program, but Barragan said more residents should take the initiative, as Lozano does, when they spot graffiti. ``Living in a community where it seems like it's just everywhere, it takes away your pride in a community,'' she said. ``In some places, I see that it gets cleaned up right away, and in other places it's like no one's ever doing anything about it. ``God bless him, but he needs more help.'' Lozano agrees, but he said spends time painting over graffiti rather than recruiting and organizing helpers. Hard work matters more to Lozano than acclaim. `Doing what I have to' ``I've been offered money for my services See .NET My Services. . A lady gave me a Pepsi recently,'' Lozano said. ``I don't do "I Don't Do" was the debut single by glamour model Michelle Marsh, released on 6 November 2006. The single reached 27 in the UK in its first week, selling only 9,000 copies and over 16,000 copies as of January 2007. The single spend a total of four weeks in the Top 75. it to be a hero. I'm doing what I have to to keep my community clean and my property values up.'' He has always considered the Northeast Valley his home. Even while his family followed farm work in the Central Valley and Idaho, while he went to high school in Azusa and while he served in the Marines, Lozano longed for his boyhood home. First impressions from his childhood in Pacoima remain vivid. Back then he saw orange orchards and row crops as far as a boy's clear vision could reach. ``It was one of the most beautiful places you could ever see,'' he recalled. Lozano returned to the Valley in the mid-1950s. He worked for a plastic toy manufacturing company and then an auto-painting business while he started a family that grew to six children, 17 grandchildren GRANDCHILDREN, domestic relations. The children of one's children. Sometimes these may claim bequests given in a will to children, though in general they can make no such claim. 6 Co. 16. and two great-grandchildren. Tapping a talent for carpentry, Lozano framed homes for more than a decade. His brother found him work as a carpenter for Universal Studios in the early 1970s. He joined the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and worked for both feature films and television at a variety of studios until he retired three years ago. Ironically, Lozano needed to create and paint some graffiti for a few episodes of the ``Starsky and Hutch'' television show. His work would be a mural mural Painting applied to and made integral with the surface of a wall or ceiling. Its roots can be found in the universal desire that led prehistoric peoples to create cave paintings—the desire to decorate their surroundings and express their ideas and beliefs. today compared with the graffiti he paints over. He doesn't regard taggers as artists. ``If it's a form of art, there's a way of expressing that,'' he said - as in the ``Tiger Pride'' mural that teen-agers are re-creating along the outside walls of San Fernando High School San Fernando High School, located in San Fernando, California, is a secondary school that is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The school colors are black and gold. All girl teams are referred to as Lady Tigers, all boy teams simply as Tigers. , where Lozano's children attended classes. Lozano's war on graffiti began more than a decade ago, long before he retired. He scraped together donations of paint and supplies from the studios. Now he gets paint and supplies from the same city department that administers the graffiti-abatement contracts. ``We encourage that,'' said Delphia Jones, director of Operation Clean Sweep clean sweep n to make a clean sweep (SPORT) → arrasar, barrer clean sweep n to make a clean sweep (Sport) → rafler tous les prix . ``Our feeling is government cannot do it all.'' When Lozano started, he was in the vanguard of graffiti fighters. Earning respect Police still contend that painting over graffiti as soon as possible discourages such vandalism. Walters said the respect Lozano has gained helps in his community. ``The gang members probably don't like him painting their stuff out, but they understand,'' Walters explained. ``To Joe it's a challenge. He's willing to go the extra yard for the entire community.'' A clean community can be a safer community. ``We think it reinforces that the good people are still in control of this area,'' said Neal Berke, who helped start the Valley Glen Community Tagger tag·ger n. 1. One that tags, especially the pursuer in the game of tag. 2. taggers Very thin sheet iron, usually plated with tin. Noun 1. Task Force several years ago. ``Graffiti represents crime and a sign to would-be opportunistic opportunistic /op·por·tu·nis·tic/ (op?er-tldbomacn-is´tik) 1. denoting a microorganism which does not ordinarily cause disease but becomes pathogenic under certain circumstances. 2. criminals that people in the area don't care about their community and won't get involved in its own safety.'' With a crew of 10 and supplies from sources beyond the city, the task force goes where city contractors don't to cover graffiti within 24 hours. Working weekends, the volunteers can paint out graffiti from Friday and Saturday nights that wouldn't be reported to the city crews until Monday. ``It's lovely to have a target, but it's not always attainable. There's a lot of vandalism out there,'' Berke said. As for their impact, Berke said some of the task force volunteers have provided eyewitness An individual who was present during an event and is called by a party in a lawsuit to testify as to what he or she observed. The state and Federal Rules of Evidence, which govern the admissibility of evidence in civil actions and criminal proceedings, impose requirements reports on graffiti vandalism that resulted in arrests and convictions. Yet the problem hasn't eased in Valley Glen. ``There's just as many taggers. There's also a lot of gang graffiti, which pretty much goes with the ebbs and tides of hostility between the gangs,'' Berke said. ``The difference is we're wiping it out faster.'' Berke said Lozano's one-man crew is remarkable. Whatever the odds, the retiree in the old pickup will keep at his war on graffiti. ``It's just ugly. It brings down your community,'' Lozano said. ``I just do it because I think it's the right thing to do.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Volunteer Joe Lozano paints over graffiti. He has worked for a decade as a one-man vandalism fighter in Mission Hills and Pacoima. Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer |
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