Two years ago when I first became Mayor, I made the clean up of graffiti one of my highest priorities to help strengthen the quality of life in San Jose neighborhoods.

Like a broken window or vacant lot, graffiti sends a message about the safety of a neighborhood. Two years ago, we declared war on graffiti. Since then we have won many battles, and we are expanding our successful efforts.

The results since the beginning of 1999 have been impressive. The number of tags found marring and scarring walls, parks, bridges, and signs throughout San Jose has fallen dramatically, from more than 70,000 tags when we started to only 10,000 in our most recent citywide survey done of every San Jose street in January this year.

That is an incredible number – an 85 percent reduction in the number of tags in two years! It was so remarkable that our City staff tripled checked the numbers just to make sure.

The credit for this outstanding result is shared by many people, including 1700 community anti-graffiti volunteers who have dedicated their own time and labor to make sure their neighborhoods remain clear of graffiti.

I spend a lot of time in neighborhoods working alongside residents on clean up days, and I have joined the crews and volunteers working with the San Jose Anti-Graffiti Program. I can see the difference, and I have felt the enthusiasm of volunteer energy that has made these results possible.

The dramatic reductions are also the result of aggressive enforcement by our police to arrest and prosecute graffiti vandals, especially those who have a long history and extensive trail of damaging the quality of our neighborhoods. Just in the past year alone, San Jose police have arrested 170 graffiti vandals, and the word is out on the street that San Jose will not tolerate this vandalism.

San Jose’s Anti-Graffiti Program also has stepped up their efforts with great effectiveness. Our crews have responded to my original challenge to clean up graffiti reported on the City’s anti-graffiti hotline within three days – they now accomplish this goal for nearly 100 percent of all calls they receive. Graffiti in parks is now cleaned up in just 24 hours after we get a call – also 100 percent of the time.

Because of this outstanding record, I have raised the challenge this year to our crews to get those Graffiti Hotline calls cleaned up in just two days’ time – and they are looking forward to meeting the new standard to keep our neighborhoods clear.

Every day, our crews now travel a 100-mile route that historically has had the greatest amount of graffiti tags – and when they first started, it was a very long day. Now, with the number of tags falling so low, we are looking at starting a second route to extend the success of our anti-graffiti results.

San Jose’s anti-graffiti results are an excellent model for what we can do together to make sure our city is a great place to live. We have created effective partnerships with our community; we have set clear goals with regular measurement; and we use innovative methods to help us achieve our success.

I am proud of our community’s accomplishment to strengthen the quality of life in our neighborhoods, and I look forward to our continuing success – both for wiping out graffiti and for other community improvements.