Anti-graffiti group folds

MONTROSE — After 20 years of service, the Volunteers in Pride are hanging up their graffiti-removing paintbrushes due to a decrease in vandalism in the Crescenta Valley and Northeast Los Angeles.

Police officials say the drop in vandalism incidents can largely be attributed to the group, which is made up of area residents who volunteered their time to paint over graffiti.

“Graffiti has gone down since their inception,” Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

The group’s founder, Peter Rosenthal, said volunteers used to paint over graffiti two to three times per week, but those numbers have dropped in the past year.

Volunteers from Griffith Park, La Cañada Flintridge and La Crescenta responded to one graffiti incident every two to three months, he said.

With less graffiti to clean up, Rosenthal said it was the right time for the group to turn in their paint buckets.

And while the group won’t be cleaning up the graffiti, he said they will keep an eye out for any markings and report them to police. The group will also continue to advise homeowners who need help with graffiti incidents.

Rosenthal, 70, admits that cleaning up graffiti was not as exciting now than it was when he was 50.

And passing down the group’s leadership role to an existing member is somewhat complicated, so he said he would rather close it down.

As the group’s founder, Rosenthal said he tracked and maintained paint supplies, and corresponded with police and city officials.

The group worked with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Glendale and Los Angeles police departments to help solve vandalism crimes, he said.

“We are hoping people know that we helped put people in jail,” Rosenthal said.

The group was able to identify some vandals who were eventually arrested, said Glendale Police Officer Matt Zakarian in the north area command.

Rosenthal obtained California Department of Transportation permits for the group so members could clean up graffiti and take down unnecessary signs along local freeways.

Rosenthal, a local businessman, started the group in the 1990s after he rode his horse through a tunnel in Griffith Park and noticed a splattering of graffiti. He returned with a friend and cleaned it up.

He estimates that the group cleaned up thousands of graffiti markings and far too many square feet to count, he said.

Volunteer Cheryl McKeown joined the group in 1992 after she got tired of seeing the graffiti in her Griffith Park neighborhood.

“You kind of feel like you are fighting back,” she said.

Painting over graffiti was gratifying, McKeown said, adding that she was disappointed the group was disbanding.

With the group no longer cleaning up graffiti, Zakarian and Lorenz said it will be up to community members to quickly spot taggings and take action by either notifying the city or county.