Speaker
Rick Stanton is a
graduate of San Jose State University. He began working for the City of
San Jose in 1975. From 1994 to 1997 he was the manager of Project
Crackdown, a neighborhood improvement program that concentrated the
efforts of the Police Department, Code Enforcement and Community
Organizing. This program resulted in crime and blight being drastically
reduced in several disadvantaged neighborhoods in San Jose. From 1997
he was assigned to supervise the Anti-Graffiti Program. The Mayor added
anti-litter efforts to his responsibilities in 2002. Rick managed the
Anti-Graffiti and Litter Program until he retired in April 2007.
When Rick started with the
Anti-Graffiti Program, graffiti was seemingly everywhere. The program
was providing several services that looked good on paper, but were not
effective. A lot of money was being wasted because the staff was not
being used properly. As a matter of fact, the first city wide graffiti
survey in 1999 found 71,541 tags that were visible from the streets of
San Jose. After re-focusing on new priorities, with the help of the
Mayor and City Council, an amazing improvement began to take shape.
This success culminated with only 129 tags counted during the 2006
survey. This is an amazing reduction in graffiti by 99.88% from 1999.
Rick has shared the story of San Jose’s success in reducing graffiti as
a workshop leader at the following national conferences:
-
Keep America Beautiful,
New Orleans, LA
-
The Attorney General of
New York’s Neighborhood Watch Conference, Albany, NY
-
The National Youth Crime
Watch Conference, Washington DC
-
The National Crime
Prevention Conference, Provo, UT
Currently, Rick is sharing
his expertise with other cities as an anti-graffiti consultant with
Boyles & Associates. Boyles & Associates can be found on the web at
www.yourgraffitisolution.com or by calling (408)997-9756.
Conference Topic
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