Cleaning up graffiti could become easier and quicker thanks to newly proposed legislation that shifts the responsibility of graffiti removal from the individual to the city.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg made the announcement on Thursday, July 9 standing across the street from Manolo’s Mexican Restaurant in Sunnyside – a property that has been defaced by graffiti on multiple occasions, which the owner believes has led to a decrease in business.
“City government, working with property owners and community residents will keep our neighborhoods beautiful and our city safer, cleaner and more livable,” Bloomberg said.
The new legislation, which Bloomberg believes the City Council will approve in the near future, would change the process from asking property owners to ‘opt in’ to have their property cleaned by city crews to a system in which property owners who do not want the city to rid their property of graffiti must ‘opt out.’ Under the current system, many times businesses and property owners would take too long to clean the property or ask for the city’s help to clean it, which often resulted in fines for the business or property that was a victim of graffiti.
“This new system will improve the efficiency of the city’s graffiti abatement efforts,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
In 2007, the Bloomberg Administration started the city’s Graffiti Free NYC – a partnership between the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unity, Economic Development Corporation and Department of Sanitation – to offer a free graffiti removal service for property owners who sign a waiver requesting its removal. Their efforts have nearly doubled the number of sites cleaned this year in comparison to 2007, even with the delay caused by the rain in June that temporarily delayed progress.
In addition, Bloomberg also praised the work of the Street Conditions Observation Unit (SCOUT), which during the past two years has traveled every block in the city reporting negative sites to 3-1-1. The SCOUT program has increased the number of sites identified with graffiti by 60 percent.
The Mayor also discussed the new steps his Office of Operations would be taking to increase productivity. Some of these efforts include making the waiver available on the city web sites to transmit the requests to cleaning crews, securing 10 new graffiti power wash trucks with federal funds and creating more efficient routes for cleanup trucks.
“All of the things incorporated in this legislation are needed,” said Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who attended the announcement in Sunnyside. “We need to have an ongoing effort.”
Bloomberg’s office chose Sunnyside to make the announcement because a recent survey found that 27 percent of residents living in Community Board 2, which covers Sunnyside, ranked graffiti control as poor in their neighborhood. Many local legislators were on hand for the announcement and praised Bloomberg for his leadership on this issue.
“Small things make a big difference; we can do better,” said City Councilmember Eric Gioia, who represents Sunnyside.
