Restrooms at Serr Mesa Little League field

Nearly 7,000 graffiti reports have been logged onto San Diego's Get It Done app since the start of the year—many of which were spray painted at places where young children with their parents and guardians congregate. One would think that parks, playgrounds, libraries, BMX tracks, hiking trails, skateparks, and little league baseball diamonds are vandal-safe zones — but no, on the contrary.  

"Last week, we were tagged three times!" said Nicole Rick in an online post on February 28. We recently received a $25,000 grant from Ballpark Buns to create our 'field of dreams.' One of our coaches donated paint and services, and we repainted all of our buildings—only to have them tagged hours later."  

Rick, a Serra Mesa Little League board member, was concerned because their March 2 season opener was just two or three days away.

Downtown library's ninth floor graffiti reported

She sent me photos of the baseball field restrooms south of Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. One wall was covered with blue spray paint that read "f#ck lamers," among other 3D lettering and unreadable words.

Rick continued, "It’s disheartening to see some try to ruin it for us all. We utilized Diamond Designs to refurbish all four of our fields and have spent countless hours fixing up our community park of Cabrillo Heights."

And while some of the little league parents attempted to reach out on the city's Get It Done app, under the 'graffiti complaint on public land' header, the app read "Estimated Resolution Time (public property): 6 days." This request wasn't an option as the March 2 season opener was just 48-72 hours away.  

Luckily for the baseball teams, a local painter who once played in the same little league program saw the spray paint-defaced walls on a Facebook post and volunteered his services.

"Quick update!" he posted online. "Graffiti is covered! The bathrooms look presentable, and the fields look top-notch. Good luck for the season opener. Play ball, kids!"

But it's not just Serra Mesa — other grom-centric areas in San Diego County were recently hit by vandals.

On March 5, someone reported on Get It Done a tag on the Sherman Heights Community Center. That same day, a downtown dweller reported on the app about the top floor of the nine-story San Diego Central Library. It's "very dangerous for whoever did it," reads the report by the incriminating photos. "[I'm] reporting, as employees may not be able to see it and may want to know so their security can keep an eye out and prevent it in the future. Hard to see the red graffiti in the pic, so I’ve circled it." As this article goes to print, almost a week later, the report is still listed as "New," meaning the tag hasn't been assessed.

On March 2, a local reported on Get It Done that someone tagged onto the back wall of a building where San Diego cops hang out. The building was once home to the former San Diego Neighborhood Watch teams of Normal Heights and Kensington, which used to help bust taggers. The tagged-on wall is feet away and faces the Ward Canyon Park playground.    

Get It Done suggests reporting live graffiti in progress to 911.

It says that "photos are essential for graffiti reports to help crews identify the issue ... The City of San Diego removes graffiti from City property and, in some cases, graffiti visible to the public that is located on residential property of four units or less." Sometimes, a City employee will bring a power washer machine to spray off the paint.

Many locals, though, miss this part when making a Get It Done complaint—commercial property owners, private property owners, and utility companies are the ones responsible for graffiti removal on their own property.

Back in Serra Mesa, by the Serra Mesa Rec Center, another form of what residents say is vandalism is making its rounds on the internet and Get It Done.

"For some time, there have been four or five teenage boys riding electric offroad motorcycles through the neighboring streets; they shoot out of nowhere," said one resident on the NextDoor app. "Well, recently, they started tearing up the hillsides at the rec center and turning the children's play structure sandbox into a race course. I have very little faith in city staff taking action. Please keep your children safe. If by chance you might know the parents/grandparents of these teens, notify them what their kids are up to."

The Next Door photos show tire marks on the grass and sand. "As teens, they have no idea of the cost of sod or city park maintenance workers' labor ($27 hour each)," said one neighbor. "This is probably thousands of dollars in landscape repair cost to taxpayers."

Other Serra Mesans are totally OK with ripping up grassy areas. "We did the same thing when I was a kid," said Lorenzo Almodovar, a grom in the 70s. "So much of the time, we were outside. Most of the boys and a few girls played in Mission Village Little League. We had some vacant lots with jumps and drop-offs for bikes or hanging out at our elementary schools or the rec center. At Cubberley Elementary School (which is just east of the above-mentioned rec center and little league fields), we would put all the outside cafeteria tables together either in a straight line and ride our bikes on them and drop off or in figure eight and play chase that usually didn't last to long someone would fall there bike and crash hard."

Anthony A., a former little leaguer from Linda Vista in the 1980s, agreed with Almodovar. "Let kids do more outdoor shit," he said. "They should ride BMX bikes and skateboard everywhere like we did. We didn't have cell phones and Uber Eats, and we'd ride to 7-Eleven, which was so rad. Our kids and grandkids nowadays get bored real easily and might be the ones tagging our own neighborhoods."

Jim K. from Mission Valley recently saw "two female teenagers tagging the wall under the I-15 freeway overpass on Rancho Mission Road — who must have been around 14 years old. I gave them both the stink eye as I drove by and later reported the graffiti to GetItDone. I used to think all the graffiti in our area was gang-related, not realizing that a lot of it just may be from some teenage kid living in your own community."