I was very pleased to read Councilmember Steve Sojka’s guest opinion on the city’s fight to curtail increased incidents of graffiti in our community (“Curbing graffiti will take a citywide effort,” Feb. 12, Simi Valley Acorn ).

These efforts demonstrated that while our city is working with less revenue and in a tough economy, it is taking the fight against graffiti head on.

Too often when times are tight, corners get cut. Government will simply change the service standards, so no one notices the difference on paper. Or it will rewrite the response procedures, so it takes a long wait on the phone to receive a call for service.

Worst of all, often government will simply respond to the public with the typical blame game we see in Sacramento or Washington.

In the past, some in Los Angeles have met their 675,000 graffiti incidents per year by blaming video games and the Internet or even openly debating whether graffiti is a form of artistic expression. These are not solutions.

With news of some arrests, it is clear that our city is taking this challenge head on. In the end, we should all applaud the police department and our city officials for identifying the issue and going after the problem in a proactive and aggressive manner.
Scott Blough
Simi Valley