Page 8 - Gideon Cramer News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

what we've done since then, we lost our nonprofit, now everybody who does graffiti, we generally send out, not the paint, we send out to strip the toilets and public parks, pick up dog poop at the dog park. pick up something that was disgusting and they don't get a chance to paint at all. we would see where they would paint over and they would forget the part with their gang and they would paint over. they would use a roller and put stuff behind. we've done that. we've only walked away from it only because we haven't got what we consider the proper supervision to go out to be able to...

gangsters themselves. they had opened a nonprofit and they were doing paint overs. they were pretty astute at assessing the juveniles and assessing the areas they were in. what we've done since then, we lost our nonprofit, now everybody who does graffiti, we generally send out, not the paint, we send out to strip the toilets and public parks, pick up dog poop at the dog park. pick up something that was disgusting and they don't get a chance to paint at all. we would see where they would paint over and they would forget the part with their gang and they would paint over. they would us...

not talk to them in their own vernacular, but who can see eye to eye with them, talk to them about kid things and most of all be patient. and who can document trouble and kind of see things on the horizon that might be issues coming up and who are familiar with the san francisco landscape. you know, i don't let just any cop come and do the overtime. very, very picky about who i get. and i get guys who are dependable and who are most of all good with kids. >> larry, part 2. >> about 18, roughly about five crews that go out total. but they remember their main focus is public, not priva...

painters or staff is in your graffiti abatement program? >> great questions. >> well, i'm the graffiti guy, graffiti abatement guy. [laughter] (applause) >> as far as the guys i use on my paint overs, i have a group of 3 to 4 guys and i pick them -- they're hand picked by me. i tend to pick guys who are patient, good with kids, guys who are school resource officers. that's a big plus. you know, you've got to like kids, maybe have experience in teaching, coaching, working with kids. like i said in my presentation, you don't want the guy with the rack shock and smoke mirror glasses who...

basically like i said before, we have our contractor on staff who is fully qualified, who is responsible for getting a letter approval through heritage for his chemical. they have to do a test with them to ensure that the products are safe for use on all heritage buildings. and so that's how we've been able to handle our heritage buildings. >> i think most of my experience here in the states is it has more to do with the qualifications -- if it's designated listed historic property, then it tends to shift over to the qualifications have to be somebody that has a certain degree and co...