Volunteers spent Saturday morning cleaning up graffiti near Santa Rosa Park.
“It takes away from the natural beauty of the area we live in,” Oliver Maxwell, a San Luis Obispo resident, said.
Maxwell and his son moved from Dallas and are now living in a small town. Maxwell says the impact of graffiti is more noticeable in the tight knit community of San Luis Obispo.
“There's a smaller area so the work that we do, we’re able to see because we go across the same areas quite often so it's very rewarding for us,” Maxwell said.
Bill Proll, reserve police officer for Slo, has been involved with graffiti cleanup in San Luis Obispo for almost 40 years.
“This is one of the worst times for graffiti I've seen,” Proll said.
“The police department is really stepping up the enforcement to catch the people who are doing this,” Proll said.
In California if you vandalize government property, $400 or more of damage is considered a felony in which you can face up to three years in state prison, a fine of up to $50,000, or both according to the Kann California Law Group.
“Part of giving back to our community is taking care of our community and I thought I'd do that,”by taking care of the graffiti that has unfortunately been placed in our community,” Sebastian Lopez, a Cal Poly student who volunteered said.
If you have any reports of graffiti in the community visit thislink.
