Annoying but resolved; Elk Grove resident gets street graffiti cleaned

Annoying street graffiti on Salmon Creek Drive in Elk Grove

We have all heard the old expression that you can't fight city hall. While that expression may ring true from time to time, for one Elk Grove resident communicating with the city proved that you don't have to fight city hall to get things done.

The matter involved some graffiti on the sidewalk on the 9300 block of Salmon Creek Drive. Frustrated that the visual blight had not been removed after more than one call, the resident contacted a host of city officials over the weekend as well as Elk Grove News.

Curious, we visited the site in question and took this  photograph Sunday morning. Our reader contacted the mayor and police chief among others and let us know that he was glad to see that Mayor Steve Detrick responded to his e-mail inquiry almost immediately. As our reader said it is "great to see Steve is on the job 7 days a week."

The resident also heard from Chief Robert Lehner on Sunday evening saying the matter will be resolved. In Lehner's communication, the chief was forthright acknowledging the annoyance of this type of property damage and said on rare occasions arrests are made. Nonetheless, the tags are photographed to look for patterns of gang activity and once this is done, he explained, the blight is cleaned up.

While the resident's initial complaint was that the city had been slow to respond to the matter, he expressed satisfaction that the matter had been resolved quickly after the upper echelon of city government had been contacted for resolution.

So if you are not getting satisfaction in resolving things like graffiti in your neighborhood, contact your elected officials - this after all is their job.

Sometimes you can fight work with city hall.