Meet Constantino, the county worker keeping Altadena free from ad 'blight'

The Eaton Fire had turned much of Altadena into a moonscape — dusty, gray, pitted where houses used to stand.

But amid the barren landscape, hundreds of signs started to sprout — disaster-related advertisements from the likes of investors, lawyers, builders and demolition companies.

Most signs have been illegally placed at public intersections and parks, on utility poles and trees. Others have gone on people's scorched yards. Some co-opt the language of fire survivors, with one sign reading “Rebuild Altadena Strong.”

“It was really upsetting,” said resident Linda Japha. “So many people had lost everything, and so many other people saw that as an opportunity to make a profit.”

Hundreds of signs have been taken down from across Altadena by citizens and public works employees alike.

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Josie Huang

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Japha is part of a loosely-organized group of residents who have been taking down signs in the public right of way, with the help of county workers. One employee in particular has become a local hero, removing some 1,500 signs alone.

“It was important for me to get out here and help out, because I've been here a long time,” said Constantino Kallimanis, a veteran with L.A. County Public Works.

For 19 years, Kallimanis has monitored graffiti in unincorporated communities such as Altadena, keeping public spaces clear and free of vandalism.

In the weeks after the Eaton Fire, his focus in Altadena shifted to removing unauthorized signs.

Taking his usual west-to-east route through town on a recent morning, Kallimanis kept his eye out for sign solicitations, while pointing out favorite landmarks like the destroyed Bunny Museum.

He said he mourned with a community he’s developed great affection for.

“It's really diverse, and I like that it's clean, and there was a lot of good restaurants to eat here back in the day,” said Kallimanis who commutes from Alta Loma in San Bernardino County. “Everybody just was so nice up here.”

Driving through Altadena

On approach to the Mountain View mortuary and cemetery, Kallimanis eagle-eyed a sign for debris removal that had been zip-tied to a stop sign. He walked out of the van gripping a pair of pliers.

In quick one turn, he pries off the sign. “And that's it,” he said, matter-of-factly.

Some contractors attach their signs so high up utility poles that they can’t be reached without a ladder. But Kallimanis has come up with a method that’s now copied by other residents. He demonstrates a move with a shovel at a stop on Christmas Tree Lane.

Kallimanis jams the blade behind a bright yellow plastic sign secured to a utility pole and loosens the wire ties until the sign clatters to the ground.

Constantin Kallimanis approaches two colleagues who work on graffiti abatement for L.A. County public works.

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Japha coined it the “Kallimanis method,” the mention of which seems to embarrass him.

“It’s real simple,” he said. “Nothing to get crazy about.”

Kallimanis and colleagues on the county’s graffiti abatement team call offending businesses, and find that many apologize, saying they didn’t know county code and were just trying to help the community.

The focus has been education, rather than fines. But others don’t listen and keep putting up signs, said Kallimanis’ supervisor, Arienne Tellias.

“They get more firm phone calls and say, ‘Please, please don't do this. The residents have spoken, and we're trying to make things clean and nice for them, so please don't do it,’” Tellias said.

After a while, Tellias said, repeat offenders give up. It gets expensive replacing signs.

The removal of unwanted signs from public spaces in Altadena is part of the county’s larger effort to speed the recovery and rebuilding process.

Yonah Halpern, principal engineer at L.A. County Public Works, said the goal is for residents to feel safe and "not be distracted by signs or companies or advertisements.”

“We want the area to be free of graffiti and solicitation, so residents can really start to feel at home again and can start to rebuild," Halpern said.

An unexpected ally

The case could be made that Kallimanis is just doing his job, but residents single him out as a dedicated ally.

“I think it's the fact that somebody who didn’t even live here cared so deeply and identified with the blight that was being caused,” Japha said.

Residents themselves have removed hundreds of signs individually.

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Courtesy of Linda Japha

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Japha, a set decorator who’s relocated to L.A. as her Altadena home undergoes remediation, said she hadn’t expected much from the county after the fire.

Many residents have been angry and disillusioned by the county response to the disaster, starting from the first night of a blaze that would kill at least 18 people in Altadena and destroy more than 9,000 structures.

Then came the county’s decision to re-open Altadena to the public in late January. By contrast, entry to Pacific Palisades remains restricted at checkpoints secured by the National Guard.

Since the fire, burglaries skyrocketed 450%, and some of Japha's neighbors have taken to hiring their own security details.

Trying to do her part to protect the community from "predator" businesses, Japha has removed 150 signs from public spaces.

“When you're displaced, or you've lost your house, you feel very powerless,” Japha said. “And if you can just go and do something for yourself and make that happen, it gives you a sense of agency.”

Through the Beautiful Altadena Facebook group, she found other residents doing the same, including Rob Moreland, who works in software. On his regular trips to visit his destroyed lot, he’s taken down 200 signs from public areas.

"There's probably some great contractors putting down signs who just don't know what the ordinances are," Moreland said. "Those signs are coming up too, because you can't tell good from bad just by looking at a sign if it's in the public right of way."

Nearly four months since the fire laid waste to his house, Moreland grows emotional talking about the immense loss. In the early morning hours, he fought the blaze at home alone, using buckets of water, as lawns and fences in the neighborhood started to catch fire, and the air grew thick with smoke.

Moreland had managed to put out all the embers he could see, but his heart sank as he heard ominous sounds in the distance.

“Eucalyptuses and other trees uphill were starting to explode,” Moreland said. “I could hear pops and bangs, and the number of embers just skyrocketed."

That’s when he said he knew to say goodbye to the house.

As Moreland struggles with the memory, and the uphill battle to rebuild, the act of taking down errant signs has proven cathartic.

“At a lot of the stops for signs, I'll screech on the brakes," Moreland said. "I could just take it out, but I rip it out. But the decision to do it is really based on wanting to help the community as much as anything."

More signs coming

Officially, the county recommends that citizens not to remove signs on their own but to call the public works helpline at (800) 675-4357.

But what’s typically happening is that residents like Moreland will just text or e-mail Kallimanis.

Through their collective efforts, the initial deluge of signs has subsided.

Constantino Kallimanis holds up a couple of signs he removed from an intersection in Altadena.

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But with construction expected to ramp up in coming months, the signs will keep coming. And more will start to show up on private properties undergoing construction.

Signs on private property must also follow county code when it comes to size and the length of time they can be posted. Since the fire, the regional planning department has received 19 complaints about signs and issued seven notices of violations to homeowners. As with sign infractions on public property, the county has prioritized education over fines.

"We don't want to overburden an already-overburdened community by fines," said Sharon Guidry, deputy director of the enforcement division of the county's Department of Regional Planning.

While unauthorized signs on private property are not under Kallimanis’ purview, he will no doubt hear about them from locals.

He gets frequent communications from Melissa Michelson, a local educator who does community work in Altadena and helped launch the group Altadena Not For Sale.

On her rounds posting “Altadena Not For Sale” signs on behalf of homeowners who purchased them, Michelson would see illegally-placed signs and e-mail locations and images to Kallimanis. She said he would respond the next day with a simple "done."

Residents and public works employees leave alone signs that appear to be community-focused.

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Recently, she saw him in the flesh at a community event.

“I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, is this who I think it is?'” Michelson said. She asked for a photo. "He’s a legend. He’s a hero.”

Kallimanis said he’s never had this kind of reception from the public. He recounts an encounter a few weeks ago, when a woman found out who he was and grabbed both his hands.

“I had a citizen tell me, ‘Thank you for not giving up on us,'” Kallimanis said. “And it's like, but ‘Why would we give up on you? Like we love you guys.'”

Kallimanis said he got goosebumps talking to the woman.

“It just got me going again,” Kallimanis said. “Things have calmed down, but it's not time to let up now. It's time to just keep going now.”

Keep going, he said, until Altadena is back to being itself again.