Bloomberg Vanquishes Vandals

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in Ridgewood on July 16 touting the citys success in eradicating graffiti.
"The task force has aggressively attacked graffiti in the five boroughs," said Bloomberg, referring to the citywide graffiti clean-up initiative that began in July 2002. The mayor cited Astoria, Sunnyside and Woodside as neighborhoods in the borough that have squashed vandalism dramatically.
Since last year, City Hall, in conjunction with the Community Assistance Unit, the Parks and Recreation Department, the Sanitation Department and the Economic Development Corporation, has been leading a campaign to whitewash the graffiti that tarnishes city buildings, streets and vehicles.
"I applaud the efforts of our city agencies and the community groups who have been fighting graffiti so aggressively," said Bloomberg, surrounded at the press conference by other anti-vandalism crusaders Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, Councilwoman Diana Reina and a handful of city commissioners. The mayor also proudly stated that 16.3 million square feet of graffiti from more than 6,241 sites across New York City has been removed.The mayor encouraged city residents to call 311 when they spot graffiti in their neighborhoods.
"I think that the whole idea of him making this a quality-of-life issue is terrific," said Gary Giordano, district manager of Community Board 5. Giordano says graffiti is one of the biggest non-violent crime problems that his district and the city as a whole face.
The Community Assistance Unit, Giordano said, loaned support to CB 5s Community Improvement and Beautification program. Their program began in May and has cleaned 50 sites to date, in Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village and Glendale. Giordano said that many of the hard-hit graffiti areas have been in Ridgewood and on the Eliot Avenue Bridge.
"Its a good cause for the neighborhood," said Jassenia Luk, a 19-year-old Ridgewood resident, who works at the Ridgewood-Bushwick Centers summer youth program. She and other youth from her program were in attendance to help the mayor clean up graffiti on the walls behind the mayors podium. Poor weather cut the paint job short, however.
Luk, whose brothers car was vandalized by graffiti, got involved in the clean-up to set an example for other kids. "There are other people watching us today," said the young crusader. "Hopefully they have their kids watching and it will get other kids in the neighborhood to do something."
Other kids in the Ridgewood-Bushwick Centers summer youth program said tagging a wall or a street is a way to show off the vandals skills to the public. "It gets them noticed," said 15-year-old Hiram Troche, who also participated in the clean-up.
Quincy Leon, 14, of Ridgewood summed up the sentiment of the anti-graffiti crusaders, saying, "If they dont know how to treat the walls in their neighborhood, then they dont know how to treat themselves either."