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Bell gets fresh coat of paint

Bell gets fresh coat of paint
Photo by Phil Corso
By Phil Corso

Bell Boulevard has been given a face-lift.

The Bayside Village Business Improvement District announced a new partnership with Brooklyn-based Atlantic Maintenance Corp. to provide regular sweeps of Bell Boulevard to remove graffiti and clean street furniture.

BID Executive Director Lyle Sclair joined with Chairman Dominick Bruccoleri to announce the new partnership and get to work on some graffiti removal.

“The boulevard has certainly seen its fair share of wear-and-tear over the years,” Sclair said. “The business community wants to reflect the great residential neighborhood that we have here in Bayside.”

The BID has already been providing supplemental sanitation services for businesses along Bell Boulevard between 35th Avenue and Northern Boulevard six days a week, but Sclair said the intense foot and street traffic makes it difficult for store owners to keep up with all forms of maintenance. Now, crews will be expanding services once a month to include graffiti removal on the first floors of Bell buildings as well as new paint jobs for street poles, garbage cans, light poles, fire hydrants and more.

“Bell Boulevard is not only a premier destination in Queens, but one in New York City,” he said. “We have over 14,000 cars traveling along Bell Boulevard every day along with 4,000 Long Island Rail Road commuters and thousands of bus riders.”

Atlantic has already helped clean up four spots along the Boulevard and owner David Goldberg said businesses in need of his services can simply reach out to the BID to request an appointment. Goldberg said consistency was the No. 1 way for deterring unwanted street art.

“When you remove graffiti, sticker and posters, people are less likely to come back to paint the boulevard,” he said. “You have to take the first step to start the removal process so people learn it’s not worth it to spray graffiti here.”

After a short news conference in front of American Vision, at the corner of Bell Boulevard and 41st Avenue, Atlantic flexed its maintenance muscle by scraping away white graffiti marks from some street furniture and painting them over in green. BID leaders said the project would only attract more consumers to the commercial strip and hopefully bring more businesses to Bayside.

“Bell Boulevard is one of the dining meccas of Queens,” Bruccoleri said. “Our goal is to build smaller businesses here to get a lot more street traffic.”

Reach reporter Phil Corso by e-mail at pcorso@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.