Clarence "Lefty" Blasco and Frank Jones

Fifteen years ago Gloria Aispuro and Dr. Berry Leonard got fed up with the widespread graffiti problem plaguing Van Nuys and Panorama City and decided to do something about it. They had a community meeting and explained to those 300 in attendance that graffiti was a decrement to our society. It was on walls of businesses, apartment complexes, houses, freeway over crossings, alleys, sidewalks, street signs and any other paintable surface. Many of the messages were of hate, destruction and sometimes death. The City of Los Angeles was spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars every year employing people to clean up the mess, but still the graffiti raged on. They asked for volunteers to help rid the community of the graffiti.

Several community members stepped forward, including Clarence "Lefty" Blasco and Frank Jones joined the task force.

Fifteen years later they still go out and scout the community to locate graffiti to be removed. After mapping out the area Lefty and Frank hit the street to erase the graffiti. Many times over the years local gang members have challenged them as they remove the graffiti. Undaunted, by those challenges, Lefty and Frank marched on to clean up our neighborhoods.

Over the years many other community members have come and gone, but these two Graffiti Busters stayed on to fight the war and today have a combined total of over 30 years and tens of thousands of hours of volunteering in ridding the community of graffiti.

Today, thanks to these three graffiti busters, Van Nuys and Panorama City enjoy cleaner neighborhoods.