Schneiderman launches district-wide anti-graffiti program by Daniel P. Bader Late at night, Bruce Pienkny and his specialized truck will be scouring St. Nicholas Avenue in the coming weeks for signs of graffiti as part of a new neighborhood-wide graffiti cleaning program sponsored by State Senator Eric Schneiderman. “We have 280 store gates in this neighborhood that are covered with graffiti,” Schneiderman said during an Aug. 5 press conference announcing the program. “Graffiti is one of the most often reported quality of life issues brought to me by constituents.” The neighborhood has made great strides in improving quality of life issues in recent years, he said. “We are going to maintain our improvement of the neighborhood.”  A worker, wearing a face mask and yellow waterproof jacket, demonstrated City Solve’s technique on the wall of Colorina Kids clothing store on St. Nicholas Avenue and W. 182nd Street. The worker aimed a blast of high pressure water at a wall, pre-treated before the press conference, that was covered in a faded mural and topped by graffiti. The paint quickly disappeared, revealing a door-sized section of bricks.
“We have a specially designed truck that combines high-pressure paint with high pressure water,” Pienkny said. The chemicals that dissolve the paint are environmentally friendly and are washed down the sewers with the paint. A wall, like the one at Colorina Kids, might take a couple of hours, he said, but a security gate would take less than 15 minutes. Commercial locations on St. Nicholas Avenue from W. 170th to W. 186th Streets do not have to request the program: their facades will be cleaned automatically. Besides the St. Nicholas Avenue businesses, the pilot program that runs for the rest of the year will include residential buildings anywhere in Schneiderman’s district. Residents only need to call his office (212-544-0173) to request that their buildings are power washed as well. “There’s no other way to fight [graffiti] than this way,” said Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat, who joined Schneiderman in announcing the program. “I think we’ll send a clear message that we won’t go back to the bad old days.” City Solve is also working with the Washington Heights Business Improvement District to spruce up city-owned items, like fire hydrants and boxes, street lights and bus stops. George Sanchez, executive director of the BID, said the rehab happens every three to four years. Money from a $650,000 capital improvement grant is being used to plant 27 new trees, add 54 new tree pits and replace asphalt stretches of the streets with concrete. “Washington Heights is not a ghetto, it is not a slum. That is all a mindset,” Sanchez said. Improvements, like removing graffiti will help break that mindset. “If [vandals] see their name erased a number of times they’ll go somewhere else,” Sanchez said. Pienkny said he can aid the police by calling out the hot spots that are consistently tagged with graffiti once the whole street is cleaned up. “The law enforcement effort will be more effective once we have a clean slate,” Pienkny said. The Manhattan Times is the bilingual newspaper of Washington Heights and Inwood.
|
