Rick Stanton is a graduate of San José State University. He began working for the City of San José in 1975. From 1994 to 1997 he was the manager of Project Crackdown, a neighborhood improvement program that concentrated the efforts of the Police Department, Code Enforcement and Community Organizing. This program resulted in crime and blight being drastically reduced in several disadvantaged neighborhoods in San José. In 1997 he was assigned to supervise the Anti-Graffiti Program. The Mayor added anti-litter efforts to his responsibilities in 2002. Rick managed the Anti-Graffiti and Litter Program until he retired in April 2007.

When Rick started with the Anti-Graffiti Program, graffiti was seemingly everywhere. The program was providing several services that looked good on paper, but were not effective. A lot of money was being wasted because the staff was not being used properly. As a matter of fact, the first city wide graffiti survey in 1999 found 71,541 tags that were visible from the streets of San José. After re-focusing on new priorities, with the help of the Mayor and City Council, an amazing improvement began to take shape. This success culminated with only 129 tags counted during the 2006 survey. This is an amazing reduction in graffiti of 99.88% from 1999. Rick has shared the story of San José’s success in reducing graffiti as a workshop leader in national conferences in New York, Washington, D.C., and Utah.