By Connor Adams Sheets
A Whitestone graffiti cleanup event turned divisive last week when the civic leader who spearheaded it became upset because he believes a news report on it failed to give his civic group enough credit.
For several weeks, Devon O’Connor, founder of the Welcome to Whitestone Commercial and Residential Civic Association, had been planning a graffiti cleanup at the former Whitestone Farms location, at the intersection of 150th Street and 11th Avenue.
The empty brick building had fallen into disrepair, with graffiti sprayed across its walls, 3-feet tall grass and trash strewn across the property.
“It’s been abandoned for years and everyone’s always talking about how hideous it is,” O’Connor said. “It was just a mess and an eyesore in the community.”
O’Connor became fed up with the sorry state of the site, so he enlisted the help of City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Whitestone) to organize a cleanup event.
Halloran secured funding for paint through the city Graffiti Free NYC Program, and O’Connor got Clearview Paint Supply and Ace Hardware in Whitestone to donate $200 worth of equipment. The last Thursday event was a great success, drawing more than 50 volunteers, and O’Connor was excited that he got the word out about his civic and improved his community.
But O’Connor’s elation turned sour when he saw the WPIX News broadcast on it.
Reporter Monica Morales gave the impression the event was not hosted by O’Connor’s civic, but instead by her or WPIX, O’Connor said.
“Today we moved in. With the help of some of our powerful friends, [we] gave it a Monica Ugly House makeover,” Morales said in the report, adding later, “And a special thanks to Welcome to Whitestone Civic Association and Councilman Dan Halloran. We couldn’t have done this without you.”
O’Connor has received numerous e-mails from people who were angry about the WPIX story.
“The community didn’t get credit for it. When Monica Morales from PIX 11 News did her report, she said it was her cleanup crew, she set up the project, and it was ‘Monica’s Ugly House’ contest,” O’Connor complained. “She just didn’t give credit where credit was deserved.”
Morales countered that she worked with Halloran for weeks to help plan the event and that she thought the piece was fair.
“We went out there and we mentioned Welcome to Whitestone several times in the story, and we of course mentioned the ugly house series,” she said Tuesday. “We had a lot of fun with and we thought the piece turned out pretty good. I’m sorry they feel they didn’t get enough kudos.”
Halloran said that O’Connor did most of the planning, but Morales played a key role in bringing the spotlight to the issue with an initial report about a month ago.
“Devon was doing it from the community perspective and Monica was doing it as more of a news reporter, but for both of them different components came into play,” Halloran said Tuesday. “Devon mobilized the people and got the hardware store to give the donated supplies. And I’m glad Monica came down to cover it because unless you point out these things and shame the owners, it doesn’t get done.”
Devon’s father, Tom O’Connor, said he was still disappointed after his son spoke with Morales Tuesday afternoon.
“What she and the editing crew did was they hijacked a community story,” the elder O’Connor said. “It’s probably the only event put together by the local civic getting people involved for an anti-graffiti program and this girl comes in her high heels and her video camera and calls it ‘Monica’s cleanup crew.’”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
