TARZANA : Manager, Tenants at Odds Over Graffiti

Residents of the Tarzana Meadows apartments came up with two unusual solutions to the problems of tagging and idle teen-agers at their complex last year.

They gave taggers one wall to paint on in exchange for keeping the rest of the complex graffiti-free, and allowed neighborhood youths to use the complex’s recreation center.

But the new manager preferred a more hard-line approach. Since taking over last May, Steve Donell has closed the recreation center and had the so-called “taggers’ wall” painted over, contending it had become an eyesore and a forum for exchanges between rival gangs.

Now tenants are organizing to start a new taggers’ wall, and are circulating a petition to reopen the recreation center.

“Most everyone complains about parents not getting involved and here we are, parents who want to do something, and we get stymied at every step,” said Warren Holden, a tenant.

Donell contends that the wall “was not this wonderful thing. It had turned into a misguided blight,” he said.

The recreation center had become a dangerous party site where teen-agers drank and caroused, he said.

Holden denies there were problems. But observers are siding with Donell. Margaret Pontius, community relations specialist for City Councilwoman Joy Picus, said Picus withdrew her support for the tenants last year when it appeared the recreation center had become a hangout for disruptive youths.