Ventura's trademark train trestle: What a mess!

It is an eyesore and a thorn in the side of the City of Ventura, the graffiti-covered train trestle that crosses over the 101 Freeway at the entrance to Ventura. Despite some of the most industrious people in Ventura having spent years trying to get the trestle painted over and maintained, nothing has been done beyond a few verbal promises to do something in the future.

All those who have dug in and tried to untangle the jurisdictional Gordian knot have met their match. A simple train trestle is controlled by three different entities: federal, state and local. And that’s the big problem. No one wants to take responsibility and get it fixed.

Additionally, each person who has taken on the task of getting the correct agency to step up to the plate has a slightly different reason and approach to the problem.

Assemblyman Pedro Nava (34th District) is now involved in trying to sort out the differences of opinion. “My office is trying to unwind who exactly it is that’s responsible,” Nava said. “Maybe there is a joint responsibility that we can divvy up among the people that are affected.”

“I understand how sensitive this is [in] the City of Ventura,” Nava said. “That’s one of the first things that you see as you approach the downtown. I want to do everything I can to help so that bridge is not an eyesore.”

There is a glimmer of hope now where only darkness had prevailed. Ventura Mayor Christy Weir said some progress was made in early September during a meeting with a CalTrans representative. “They have agreed to paint over their portion to get rid of the graffiti,” Weir said. “CalTrans has to shut down the freeway in order to do it, and they are going to ask Union Pacific to work on their portion while these lanes are closed down. It is a big deal because they have to work in the middle of the night.”

Weir said no start date has been given yet by CalTrans. She said she did not know whether the funds for the partial cleanup have been allocated or whether the budget mess in Sacramento first needs to be sorted out.

So how did a simple train trestle end up being a jurisdictional nightmare? It all began back in the 1850s when the railroads were first built. The federal government gave the railroads the right of way across public and private land. But the railroads were only given the right of way in a checkerboard fashion to prevent them from having total control of the essential means of transportation.

Then the population grew and the State of California built the 101 Freeway. CalTrans now controls the state-owned land, which includes the pedestal on which the trestle sits. Union Pacific Railroad controls the actual tracks and the upper structure. The City of Ventura has an easement.

Ventura Assistant City Attorney Rebecca Mendoza said she is frustrated by the infighting. “We are trying to do what we can to encourage those bodies to do something about it,” Mendoza said, “because, as a city, we don’t have very much authority over those two entities, being federal and state.”

Mendoza said that for a while, it appeared a solution was in the offing, with Union Pacific finally getting involved. “The railroad had previously indicated that they would be willing to contribute the services of a flagman to monitor the trains (during the freeway closure),” Mendoza said. “However, the last time we spoke with them, they said they might have to rethink that. What that means, I don’t know. Every time we seem to gain an inch, we lose a foot.”

There is another aspect to the problem of graffiti that is not immediately removed. Police Cpl. Al Gomez is the man in charge of cutting through the red tape for the Ventura Police Department. It is a singular obsession with Gomez because he said it can also become a serious crime problem.

“Having the tagger’s name up on the trestle is dangerous because eventually, tagging will turn into something called gang-tagging,” Gomez said. “That brings the gang element into this equation, which makes it more dangerous.

Tag-banging is gang marketing.”

Gomez said the scope of the problem can grow. “There is also the problem with cross-out, when someone from another gang puts their symbol over the first one,” Gomez said. “It means their gang is superior to the one whose tag was crossed out. That can turn into a gang war.”

Gomez said he is quite serious about getting the trestle painted clean. “We’ve actually gone to the point of contacting the Department of Homeland Security; that’s how far we’ve taken this,” Gomez said. But the issue was bounced back, this time to the county level.

“I hope in my career, something will be done,” Gomez said. “Can’t fault me for trying.”