Fed up with the vandalism of graffitists, a group of more than 30 people braved the heat on Saturday, August 16, and took to the streets to clean up their neighborhood.
Armed with paint, rollers, pans and other supplies provided by the 102nd Precinct, members from the Richmond Hill Block Association and staff from the offices of Senator Serphin Maltese and Councilmember Anthony Como painted two sites.
In Ozone Park, they cleaned up the backs of commercial buildings at the intersection of 104th Street and 95th Avenue.
In Richmond Hill, the group cleaned up the underpasses on Babbage Street, between Hillside Avenue and 110th Street.
“It [graffiti] is a quality of life crime,” said Shaaker Bhuiyan, deputy chief-of-staff at Maltese’s office, who participated in the cleanup.
“For residents it’s an eye sore and it brings the wrong type of crowd,” Bhuiyan said, adding that it drives away visitors because they get the wrong impression that these neighborhoods are bad.
EDITORS NOTE: Please get involved too, call 3-1-1, your local Community Board or Precinct for information about graffiti clean ups that you can join in your neighborhoods. Remember if you see any of these criminals actively destroying public or private property with graffiti, call 9-1-1. It is a crime and you could earn a $500 reward for catching them in the act. Check out our Graffiti “Hall of Fame/Hall of Shame” on page 19.
