More than 1,200 graffiti tags and stickers were removed from public spaces during the 15th annual Graffiti Clean-Up on May 10, setting a new record for the perennial event hosted by the Pacific Beach Town Council.
At the council’s May 21 meeting, President Charlie Nieto and Secretary Jaden Ballardo presented a summary of the event that generated 112 volunteers and PBTC staff in 23 total teams that swept through 31 zoned areas in which graffiti was identified and mapped prior to the event.
Nieto noted that removing graffiti was tantamount to preventing it, alluding to the broken windows theory which argues that visible signs of disorder in a community, such as broken windows and graffiti, encourage antisocial behavior, including crime.
“Part of what we discovered with this event is that there truly is that ‘broken window’ phenomenon: the worse things are, the worse they get,” Nieto said. “What we’re trying to stop is our community from deteriorating, both for residents and tourists but also for our businesses.”
Nieto highlighted the noticeable participation of student groups from local schools along with of community organizations that made this year’s Graffiti Clean-Up feel like a social event as much as a community improvement project.
“Something we’ve really been proud of in recent years is growing the number of student groups — as well as other businesses and other organizations in Pacific Beach — to be part of the event,” Nieto said. “We find through cooperation, we have our biggest successes rather than just going out on our own.”
In his report, lifeguard Lt. Jacob Magness described the lifeguard department’s preparations for the peak summer season starting on May 29. To fill vacancies, the city hired 60 new lifeguards this year.
“We’ve had a lot of turnover recently,” Magness said. “It’s tough hanging onto people these days. It’s just the competition and wages out there for other jobs.”
Although the difficulty in recruiting new lifeguards was eased when entry-level Lifeguard 1 base salaries were increased in 2023, Magness noted that the other side of the equation continues to decline.
“Just the amount of people that come out of school knowing how to our tests and swim well seems to be decreasing,” he said.
Despite the obstacles in recruiting, Magness said he worried that retaining the 60 new hires might be an even higher hurdle in light of the City of San Diego’s projected $258 million budget deficit and intense competition from jurisdictions offering better pay and benefits.
“Now we’ve got to figure out how to retain them,” he said. “We’re working on that.”
Caryn Blanton, executive director of Shoreline Community Services, provided information on the recent police shooting of a homeless man outside the PB Library, which drew outbursts and gasps from the audience of about 30 people.
On the afternoon of May 8, a 54-year-old local homeless man was shot by police after refusing to drop a hatchet with which he had vandalized desks and computers inside the library as patrons scurried away in fear, she said. The man survived his wounds.
Although the incident seemed unavoidable on the surface, Blanton presented an alternative perspective of a society ignoring clear signs that he was deeply troubled.
“We know this man,” Blanton said. “Since August 2024, we have interacted with him 19 times, providing to improve his health and help him secure housing. But his health kept declining. He cycled through hospitals, jails, recovery programs and clinics, but always returned to the streets.”
Blanton’s group called 911 on three different occasions to help him, she said, but each time, he was returned to his homeless and hopeless existence.
One time, the man appeared at Shoreline’s Com Point center, which offers services to homeless people, with a garbage bag duct taped to his colostomy port, which had become infected as blood and feces seeped from the port while he showed a high fever, she said.
“We called 911 again and he was taken to the emergency room and then discharged,” Blanton said.
On April 22, Shoreline made the “heartbreaking” decision to ban the man from the center because of the health risk he posed to other clients, Blanton said. Yelling that he wanted help, the man began violently swinging a heavy tool until 911 was called for the third time.
“That was 17 days before he was shot,” Blanton said. “Our question is the same as yours. Is violence really the only solution? Right now, the answer appears to be yes. But that is not public safety. Police with drawn guns outside of a library does not make us safer. Waiting for someone to unravel doesn’t make us safer. Discharging dangerously ill people back into our neighborhood does not make us safer.”
Although Blanton argued that society’s institutions need to recognize individuals spiraling down into despair by providing psychiatric and health care before tragedy strikes, she directly addressed criticism of her group’s work.
“We understand that some people blame providers like Shoreline for bringing homelessness into the community,” she said. “But people experiencing homelessness are already here. They sleep in parks, alleys, sidewalks; not because we serve them but because there are no alternatives. We don’t cause homelessness; we respond to it.”
Nieto defended Shoreline, saying the community group represents the best values of Pacific Beach by stepping in to lend a hand when all others have withdrawn theirs.
“Another thing to remind ourselves is that it’s a responsibility that really isn’t (Shoreline’s),” Nieto said. “It’s something that you guys have taken on because the system has truly forgotten some individuals. I don’t think anybody deserves a fate like that. That’s something we should all think about, especially as homeless resources are slashed from the bottom to the top.”
