Graffiti and more: Clean-up crews take on city streets

They are 16 dedicated people divided into six teams, and no neighborhood clean up or removal chore is too daunting or insurmountable for them. The masking of graffiti, the removal of broken-down cars and appliances, the draining of abandoned swimming pools are a minute part of their agenda, one written in the names of city safety and cleanliness.

The Rapid Response Team is called on every day by residents all over the valley. They respond to complaints, or help those in need, particularly the elderly. Workers on the team can be seen throughout the city, often equipped with a jet-powered, spray-paint bottle for graffiti removal, pitchforks to scoop away huge amounts of unsightly trash, and a dump truck to haul away hazardous materials.

Created in 1997, the team is part of the Neighborhood Response Division which, in turn, is part of the city of Las Vegas Neighborhood Services Department. City Councilman Michael McDonald came up with the idea, and Councilman Gary Reese helped "push it through," according to Sharon Segerblom, director of Neighborhood Services.

"It was a pretty unique idea," Segerblom said. "He (McDonald) felt that citizens who were having problems with their neighborhoods were not getting a swift enough response. He felt like some neighborhoods weren't getting properly cleaned up. So, he felt like he wanted services to be available for all regular citizens."

The RRT has been on patrol ever since, having started with only two teams. Today there are six. Neighborhood volunteers have provided an additional boost in the team's efforts. According to statistics provided by the RRT, it removed trash and debris from 30,224 locations from July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2002.

Also during that time, the RRT removed 24,741 illegal signs from 18,943 locations, erased graffiti from 16,510 locations, removed 11,433 abandoned shopping carts from 7,645 locations, expunged 697 vagrant camps, and drained stagnant water from 56 abandoned swimming pools.

A good many of these jobs are complaint-driven. Others were part of special clean-up projects, some requested by various church and community groups. One such project is in Meadows Village, an embattled neighborhood located in the downtown area, considered to be among the most dangerous neighborhoods in the valley.

Early last week, one RRT team busied itself in the area, where members sprayed over gangland graffiti on a stone wall and cleared away a huge tree branch from an alleyway. Later, they went to work on a homeless camp underneath an Interstate 15 bridge located on Bonanza Road near Main Street that had been evacuated by Metro Police days earlier.

The team of six, armed with pitchforks, filled the dump truck with blankets polluted by human filth and gathered up hypodermic needles, adult magazines and other pornographic materials, as well as a disturbing amount of various food and beverage containers filled with spoiled product. The odor permeating the area was, in and of itself, a cry for help.

RRT worker David Schissler participated in the cleanup, and has been a member of the team for three years.

"I sometimes think that people don't realize how much is being cleaned up by the city," he said. "If it wasn't being done, it would look pretty bad."

Schissler also cited abandoned swimming pools and forsaken appliances as examples of the worst hazards tended to by the RRT, since they are especially dangerous to children. But he also mentioned the importance of RRT aid to senior citizens, many of whom cannot tend to heavy trash or even light gardening, in some cases.

Segerblom said "there's hardly a cleanup" where the RRT doesn't end up helping seniors.

"In all of the downtown corridors, there are a lot of seniors who live in that area," Schissler said. "You have to help them with their needs otherwise they wouldn't get a lot of things done.

"We have one disabled elderly lady in her seventies who lives off of Mojave and Bonanza. Once a year, we go by and we clean up her front yard area to make it easier for her to have access in and out of her home. She has some overgrown vegetation in her yard. She's very grateful every time we do it -- she always says, `Thank you very much.'"

With five people answering the hot line, and with the team "out responding to calls constantly," according to Schissler, the RRT is known for its expediency, as well as its thoroughness.

Bonnie Bradley, president of the Arbor Hills Neighborhood Association, presides over an organization whose members live between Las Vegas Boulevard and Eastern Avenue, and Bonanza Road to Stewart Avenue. It's a low-income neighborhood, and one needing the RRT's help, according to Bradley.

"If we didn't have them, I just think it would be a disaster," she said. "This morning, I called in about the graffiti. It was a cement-block fence painted white and (someone) wrote on the wall. I reported it this morning, and by tomorrow, I'm sure it'll be gone."

Segerblom said the future goals for the RRT include more work with church groups, as well as clearing many more alleyways downtown. Another is to increase the RRT's volunteer base.

In the meantime, the team is responding to calls, and is able to keep up with them, according to Schissler.

"I think it's made an incredible difference in neighborhoods in some areas of the city," she said. "Because if you think about what they do, they promote citizen safety, but one way they do that is by eliminating aesthetic blight. These are things that would have made neighborhoods very unsightly and very messy.

"We want the entire city to be comfortable to live in and to make sure there are no neighborhoods left out."

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