Abstract:

Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti's district is diverse, densely populated and an ongoing graffiti battleground. About 250,000 people reside in the roughly 13-square-mile district that stretches from Hollywood to Glassell Park. Tagging remains one of the city's more visible woes. To combat such eyesores, Garcetti started UNTAG (Uniting Neighborhoods to Abolish Graffiti) in 2004, but another recent project may make reporting and ridding neighborhoods of graffiti and other nuisances even easier. Dubbed "Garcetti 311," a free iPhone app for those in L.A.'s 13th District became available April 16. Users can snap and submit photos of potholes, graffiti and even dead animals for the city to fix and clean up. The phone's GPS will automatically provide the city with a location, eliminating many time-consuming steps in reporting 311 issues over the phone, in person or via e-mail.