Saturday, January 9, 2010

Graffiti only getting worse in Glendale

From the Queens Ledger:

Turn onto 88th Street off Union Turnpike in Glendale and head towards Cooper Avenue and the Shops at Atlas Park; the first few blocks are pleasant and well kept, but they quickly give way to a stretch of graffiti-covered buildings that have caused residents trouble for years, no matter what they try to do to fix the problem.

Clean up 88th Street, says Tom Pappas, who lives in the area, and that could be the key to a safer neighborhood and higher property values. It might even help bring much-needed foot traffic to Atlas Park - the road is an important local route to the out-of-the-way mall, which has struggled to gain traction with area shoppers.

The front of Albert and Harold’s auto service store on 88th Street, diagonally opposite P.S. 113’s new annex, is covered in tags. So is the next building, a long, squat structure belonging to the Long Island Tinsmith Supply Company.

Farther north, recurring graffiti on a building owned by the entity Cosmetic Components was the subject of a letter written by Congressman Anthony Weiner in October of 2008. In his letter Rep. Weiner asked the building’s owner to put up lighting to discourage would-be taggers.

More than a year later, there are no new lights, just more graffiti.

In an August 2009 letter to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Pappas even suggested redistricting the 104th and 112th precincts to give the latter control of eastern Glendale.

Less than one month latter, Pappas received a reply from the 104th’s Deputy Inspector, Keith Green.

Green wrote that the precinct is committed to improving the quality of life for its residents. “All the police officers of the 104th Precinct,” wrote Green, “are constantly attempting to identify and apprehend graffiti vandals.”

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It might even help bring much-needed foot traffic to Atlas Park -"

Nothing will help Atlas recover from sub-idiocy management.
Redistricting the precincts won't help either, we'll still be in the ass end of another precinct full of do nothing Nassau & Suffolk county wannabe cops. What WILL (Possibly) help is parental control. Where are your kids at night what are the doing who do they hang with? And why is the back pack full of aerosol can of paint.

Anonymous said...

Maspeth Mom says...

Keith Green from the 104 Pct is totally ineffective. The cops who work for him are lazy and are low performers only doing whats necessary, not one iota more. because they dont care and they know he doesnt care.

They dont even get out of the patrol cars when you call them.

There is alot of basic stuff that cops are supposed to do but dont; one example is they are supposed to ride with the windows are least partially open so that if someone is yelling for help they can hear it.

Anonymous said...

does wiener want enviornmentally friendly lighting?

Anonymous said...

The worst part of it is that I know several of my idiot friends kids and little brothers are doing this and they are Glendale natives.

Gary the Agnostic said...

Can't be, Anon 4. It has to be someone from "another neighborhood".

Queens Crapper said...

Where in the article does anyone quoted say the vandals are from another neighborhood? The truth is all the "good" neighborhoods have been invaded by dirtbags over the years as absentee landlordism and section 8 become more prevalent.

Anonymous said...

Western Queens has become redlined for this sort of thing. Our real estate is too close to Manhattan, and is therefore valuable, so the city encourages this kind of thing so we'll all be encouraged to move out and then they can swoop in and build their megaprojects on our "blighted" land. Let's face it, we're running out of land to do big projects on, so taking is going to be the future. Hell, at Willets Point, Atlantic Yards and Columbia it's the present.

Blame Mr Public Safety said...

Mr Public Safety Peter Vallone has gone on record fighting graffiti.

Fighting graffiti is not the same as abolishing grafffiti. To do that you have to go after the landlords to immidiately clean their buildings or get a fine - to be aggressive just like parking meters.

And that ain't gonna happen, will it Peta?

Anonymous said...

I remember seeing Senator Maltese staff and others periodically cleaning and painting over graffiti. Is Senator Addabbo's staff doing similar tasks? Haven't seen or heard anything.

Gary the Agnostic said...

Queens Crapper said...
Where in the article does anyone quoted say the vandals are from another neighborhood? The truth is all the "good" neighborhoods have been invaded by dirtbags over the years as absentee landlordism and section 8 become more prevalent
---------------------------

That's exactly what I meant. That's why I put quote marks around "another neighborhood".

Anonymous said...

First,the PC can't change pct boudries,that is detrmined by the old co-terminality rule from the early 80's. Don't bitch about tagging here. Call 331 and report grafitti in the past,911 for in progress. The pct.co's have to show what they are doing to address the situation(s) at the bi-weekly "grafittistat" meetings.

Anonymous said...

graffti..its sooo yesterday and BORING.the perps.could not be any further disconnected from whats "in
'.they just label themselves as old fashioned congenital rectile orifices,not"artists". i grew up in glendale back in the days when the german decent older women[and men] washed the sidewalks with hot soap and water, glendale was special.the u.s. is going down.me ism and political correctness is a disease.Americans dont know how to make things anymore ...they just buy cheap crap at"boxstore" from china.