By Kelsey Durham
The Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association tackled concerns from neighbors at its latest monthly meeting about what some community members contend is the worst graffiti epidemic the area has experienced in decades.
Residents say the graffiti normally seen only on stores or businesses has now moved to homes and garages in the area near Rockaway Boulevard between Atlantic Avenue and 75th Street. Homeowners in the neighborhood have now requested extra attention from officers at the 102nd Precinct because they maintain the tagging is mostly done at night despite the fact that there are no stores or businesses in the area that should be drawing the attention of the taggers.
“It’s the worst I’ve seen in Woodhaven in the last 30 years,” Steve Forte, treasurer of the block association, told the meeting Saturday. “It’s like there’s nothing anybody’s doing about it.”
Jose Severino, community affairs officer for the 102nd Precinct, said the NYPD has been notified of the problem and now has two officers assigned to the area each night. He said the NYPD also has vandalism units to crack down on graffiti, but Severino said the best way to bring an end to the problem is to report it and establish a pattern followed by the individuals doing it.
“The most important thing you can do is report it because if we catch them, we can add more to their case files,” he said. “It makes a big impact on the case.”
State Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Woodhaven) said his office has seen the damage graffiti artists have done to the neighborhood this winter and urged residents to take action against it. He said the winter weather creates a prime opportunity for people to continue the graffiti because it is hard to get out and clean it this time of year, but Miller said the city runs a graffiti clean-up program that can be accessed by calling 311.
“What you can do right now is clean it up,” Severino said. “That sends the message that it’s not acceptable.”
Roman Paprocki, deputy chief of staff for Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village), said Crowley’s office has also been the victim of graffiti this winter. He said the building was tagged about a week ago and the office is currently in the process of having it removed.
“We’re working with the mayor’s office and with street graffiti teams and we’re going to aggressively attack it,” Paprocki said. “Right now, we’re encouraging people to call 311 as it happens so police can come and take a photo and document it.”
Block Association President Martin Colberg said the board is planning to walk through the neighborhood once the weather gets better to carefully document anything that has not yet been cleaned up and make spreadsheets of different tags around the area.
“We definitely got hit hard this year on garages, stores and home fronts,” he said. “It’s definitely a problem but we’re going to do all we can to take care of it.”
Reach reporter Kelsey Durham at 718-260-4572 or by e-mail at kdurham@cnglocal.com.
