City’s welcome wall defaced
Greg Risling
COSTA MESA -- A wall that welcomes visitors into the West Side was
defaced Monday night with a derogatory comment apparently directed toward
the city’s growing Latino population.
The culprit of the graffiti hasn’t been found.
In recent months, city officials have taken a proactive approach in
dealing with Latino-related issues by hosting a series of workshops on
the West Side.
Mayor Gary Monahan said the act of vandalism was an attempt to detract
some of that attention.
“Our focus has been on the West Side and there has been some grumbling
from other folks,” he said. “There is no place for that type of thing.
It’s just as bad as gang tagging.”
The granite sign sits atop a hill on Victoria Street near the Santa Ana
River. Authorities are unsure when the graffiti was placed there, but
cleanup crews had painted over it by early Tuesday afternoon.
Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations
Commission, said the vandalism may constitute a hate crime.
“It’s a slur against Latinos,” he said. “It may have been motivated by
fear or anxiety about the growing population of Latinos in the area.”
If racial tensions are growing, there are no statistics to prove it. Last
year, there were five race-related incidents reported to the county
commission, none of which were directed at Latinos.
Still, Kennedy said Costa Mesa has historically done a poor job at
addressing the Latino community’s concerns, although relations have
improved over the past couple years.
“The city has reached out to the community and done a better job,” he
said. “But there remains prejudice and intolerance in Costa Mesa. It’s
part of the reality in that city.”
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