YOUNGSTOWN Painting the town gray: Inmates help neighborhoods erase graffiti

A city councilman said churches are adopting areas to maintain.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The obscenities, gang signs, names and illegible spray painting that have adorned abandoned buildings in some city neighborhoods are now erased.
By Saturday afternoon, buildings at the corners of Rigby and Byron streets, McGuffey Road and Lansdowne Boulevard, and Boston Avenue and Southern Boulevard had a makeover with fresh gray paint to replace the handiwork of neighborhood menaces.
The painting and cleanup efforts were conducted by 12 inmates from the Mahoning County Misdemeanant Jail, under the watchful eye of part-time and reserve deputies.
Area residents could not be more pleased.
One woman in the East Side area known as La La Land, where the inmates painted the outside of an abandoned store at Rigby and Byron, took a quick look outside during the paint job. As the graffiti on the building disappeared under a fresh coat of paint, the woman, who did not want to be named, shook her head and said, "Very good, it's about time."
Start of something better: The woman said she has been a neighborhood resident for more than 30 years and is extremely happy with the cleanup efforts. She hopes the painting and trash pickup are the start of what will bring the area back to the nice neighborhood it once was.
Another lifelong East Side resident took time out to get in his van and stop by the work site. He said the area is filled with decent, hard-working people, but it only takes a few -- like those spray-can artists -- to cause trouble and bring the neighborhood down.
With a smile, the man -- also leery of giving his name -- said the painting is a definite start, but other things must be done, such as removal of a pay phone in front of the store that he said is used by drug dealers for business. He said the phone was installed when it was thought that the store would reopen, but that never happened.
The man also said it is great to see men from the misdemeanant lockup giving back to the community, and he hopes to see similar efforts in the future.
Plan to continue: Councilman Rufus Hudson, D-2nd, on hand for the painting and cleanup, said residents can expect to see various improvement efforts in the 2nd Ward area throughout the spring and summer.
Sheriff Randall A. Wellington established round-the-clock patrols in certain neighborhoods in the La La Land section of the East Side after the recent criminal gang indictment of 14 "Ayers Street Playas" and a midday shooting.
Hudson, however, said the cleanup and painting efforts are not a knee-jerk reaction to the recent problems in the area.
"We have been planning this type of cleanup for some time, but you have to wait until the weather permits it," the councilman said. "We are taking back our neighborhoods one street at a time and soon there will be no bad neighborhoods here."
Hudson said efforts will continue with neighborhood churches adopting certain areas to maintain. He expects cleanup efforts on the East Side to continue about once every two weeks.
This time the inmates used rollers and brushes to do the work, but deputy Willie Dishman said maintaining the new look will be made easier with spray guns to paint over any graffiti that finds its way back onto the walls.