Uniting Neighborhoods

Welcome Message from L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti

It is my hope that this website will serve as a resource for existing Block Captains and as a tool for recruiting new Block Captains.

The Uniting Neighborhoods To Abolish Graffiti (UNTAG) program was founded by my office in 2004 as a response to the concerns of so many of my constituents in Council District 13 who identified the presence of graffiti as the number one problem in their neighborhoods.

Upon doing a count of every single incidence of graffiti in my district in September 2004, my staff and I discovered over 20,000 tagging locations—over 1500 tags per square mile! I pledged to lower graffiti in Council District 13 by over 50% in two years, and we launched a vigorous effort to recruit Block Captains who took responsibility for specific areas in their neighborhood and who underwent training to learn how to reduce graffiti in that area.

With the help of our dedicated Block Captains, who rapidly responded to graffiti, enlisted their neighbors’ help in ensuring that the City’s graffiti abatement teams had permission to paint out taggings on private property, and sometimes even took cans of paint and took matters into their own hands (literally!), we managed to reach our goal of reducing graffiti by 50% when we did the same count two years later.

UNTAG is essentially an organizing effort, which assumes that those of us who live, work, or own businesses in a particular area are best poised to help monitor and eradicate graffiti from that area.

The success of this program depends on the willingness of individuals and families to take on the responsibilities that come with being a Block Captain. Here at untagla.com, you will find all the information and forms you need to either sign up to become a new Block Captain, to recruit other Block Captains from your community, or if you are already a Block Captain, to play your part in eliminating graffiti in your adopted area.

Thank you for visiting untagla.com. Please call my office at (323) 957-4500 with your feedback and your questions. I hope we can count on you as both a friend and a Block Captain!

Sincerely,

ERIC GARCETTI
President, Los Angeles City Council