Michael Erickson and his wife, Julie, regularly go out in the Desert Steppes subdivision where they live to remove graffiti, which they say has increased in the past year or two.

Greg Bryan / Arizona daily star

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Faced with increased vandalism, drivers speeding through residential areas and school zones and even gunshots heard in the night, a group of East Side neighbors is taking a stand.

About 107 members of the newly formed Broadway-Pantano East Association gathered to voice their concerns at 7 p.m. Tuesday night in Harold Steele Elementary School's auditorium, 700 S. Sarnoff Drive.

"The graffiti and the gunshots are the worst," said Jean Davis, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1990.

In response to the graffiti found in the area, the Crime Prevention League's Graffiti Abatement Program is "trying to involve citizens to be proactive," said Tucson Police Department Officer Raymond Harper.

He encouraged residents to report activity they view as suspicious and helped define what qualifies as such.

By doing so, they can help reduce the amount of graffiti and crime in general in their neighborhood and also save the city of Tucson money in cleanup costs, which amount to $1.50 per square foot of graffiti removal, Harper said.

East Side residents Michael and Julie Erickson are taking graffiti removal into their own hands and are pleased with the results.

Either one or both of the Ericksons walk through the neighborhood twice each day and remove the graffiti they see themselves.

If the "taggers" redo the graffiti that the Ericksons removed, the couple cleans it again.

"Once you clean up an area several times, they realize they'd rather not do it now," Michael Erickson said.

The Ericksons have lived in the Broadway-Pantano East neighborhood for 30 years, and say they have noticed the amount of graffiti and other crime in the area increase within the past year or so.

Many residents at Tuesday's meeting similarly expressed that crime and traffic disturbances have increased in the past few years.

To reverse this trend, residents voted on June 28 to create the Broadway-Pantano East Association, which represents 2,700 homes and businesses between East Broadway on the north, 22nd Street to the south, Pantano Road to the west and Camino Seco to the east.

Between the initial June 28 meeting and Tuesday night's meeting, facilitator Darlene Spoor and other residents created the association's bylaws, which residents discussed Tuesday night.

Residents of the Broadway-Pantano East neighborhood are invited to vote on the revised bylaws at 7 p.m. Aug. 29 at Harold Steele Elementary School.

Eastside