The writing is on the wall — and everywhere else — on the Upper West Side.
Vandals are wreaking havoc in the well-heeled neighborhood, tagging hundreds of buildings, sidewalks, street signs, and mailboxes.
At least 370 pieces of graffiti were found on properties from West 54th to 109th Streets, between Riverside Drive and Central Park West, the week of July 24, according to Councilwoman Gail Brewer, who tallied up the total based on constituent feedback and staffers who catalogued sites.
“I echo the concern of my constituents over the
growing problem in my district and throughout the city, and request that these areas be cleaned up as
soon as possible,” Brewer wrote in a letter to six city agencies dated Sept. 13.
Eighteen percent of the graffiti was found on residential and commercial buildings and 10% on mailboxes, the survey found. Other problem spots included fire hydrants, parking meters, crosswalk lights, and street signs.
Graffiti at the former Mermaid Inn on Amsterdam Avenue and West 88th Street “bothers people because there’s so much of it and more is added all the time and the building is staying vacant until it’s torn down,” a Brewer spokesman said.
“Multiple instances of graffiti were reported on nearly every block, mainly along avenues such as Broadway and their surrounding streets,” Brewer wrote to the agencies. One example was 88th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, where “there is a cluster of five shuttered and boarded up buildings” covered in the unsightly scrawl, she said the survey revealed.
“It’s definitely an eyesore,” said Nikki Mills, who manages Kidville, a popular children’s play space, across the street. “The building already doesn’t look great and we’ve heard that there’s squatters in there.”
Employees at other victimized locations, such as the 99 Cent Plus Discount Store on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 92nd Street, demanded graffiti removal, “especially on their own security gates and exterior walls,” Brewer said.
The councilwoman sent the data to a host of city agencies, including Sanitation, which manages the city’s graffiti removal.
“Not only has DSNY cleaned every site in the Council Member’s district under our jurisdiction, we’ve also proactively identified and removed graffiti from an additional 60 sites on the Upper West Side,” said Sanitation spokeswoman Robin Levine, who added, “Since taking over management of graffiti removal on April 1, DSNY has closed over 5,000 cases and fully cleared the historical graffiti backlog” of about 1,800 cases.