We are no longer welcoming visitors to Montclair Village these days: our southern “Welcome to Montclair” sign is not there!
Remember when there was a graffiti hit on the village, in early December? This very same sign, located on the corner of Mountain and Park Boulevards, was broken as well as spray-painted back then. We noticed the welcome got fixed in record time – within days.
Welcome to Groundhog Day, here in Montclair. Fast forward three months, and our well-worn sign was attacked once more. Apparently it’s just too weakened to be repaired quickly and has been removed, temporarily.
Montclarions are deluging Roger Vickery, who serves as the Montclair Village Association (MVA) director, about the sign’s disappearance and status. Here is his pre-emptive response:
Yes, the Montclair Village Welcome sign…has been removed for repairs and repainting. Vandals, you may recall, smashed the top of the sign last December. We made a repair on site but the vandals returned and tried to break off the top again last week. And, in our attempt to remove some graffiti late last year, we removed some of the paint on the sign.
So, we’ve asked Dave Strong, of Strong Signs in Oakland, to take the sign back to his shop so he can do a proper fix and repaint the sign. Dave is the guy who created this sign as well as our Welcome sign in the MSIC Shortline Pocket Park on the other end of town.
We hope to have the sign back in place in the next couple of weeks.
We understand the refurbishment is in safe hands and getting done, but still couldn’t resist the symbolic removal of our red-carpet welcome. Keep in mind that Montclarions took immediate notice, yet visitors wouldn’t know they missed anything.
And here’s hoping the second time is a charm.
Today in Montclair, 94611 
If you have any guesses, hunches or suspicions regarding the people who are defacing signs all around here, will you please contact your Oakland Police Dept problems solving officer. You do not have to be certain – just tell them what you believe is true and let them do the rest. (See Oakland Police Department’s new website, http://www.oaklandpolice.com, click on Community Policing on the left hand side of the screen and scroll down.) It is EXPENSIVE to repair damage. I know several residents who have been going out and removing graffiti themselves.
Any graffiti should (also/instead of) be reported to the police as a crime report and to Oakland Public Works. OPD has said there are no statistics on such vandalism in the Montclair area hence, no such problem. The claim can only be refuted if reports are made. It’s convenient to use the OPD website’s on-line crime report. It’s written evidence with a report number. OPW also has on-line reporting. Some signs can be damaged by products used to remove graffiti – If in the Shepherd Canyon Park area or on the Railroad trail, please contact the “graffiti busters” through the Shepherd Canyon Homeowners Assn website to do the removal.