By Gus Saltonstall
Hundreds of pieces of graffiti were recently identified on the Upper West Side in what one local elected official is calling a “growing problem” in the district.
New York City Councilmember Gale Brewer conducted a survey this summer that found 370 different pieces of graffiti from West 54th to 109th Streets, between Riverside Drive and Central Park West.
Following the count, Brewer penned a letter to multiple city departments on Wednesday, shared exclusively with West Side Rag, requesting that the agencies review the Upper West Side data and arrange for a removal process.
“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 the letter sent to the New York City Department of Sanitation, the Department of Transportation, the FDNY, the New York City Housing Authority, New York City Transit, and the Manhattan postmaster.
The count was completed through the use of the NYC 311 complaint system, an on-foot survey by Brewer’s staff and interns, and Upper West Siders flagging sites with corresponding photos.
Highlights of the findings
- 17.8 percent of the UWS graffiti was found on residential and commercial buildings.
- 9.5 percent of UWS graffiti was found on mailboxes.
- On the southwest corner of Amsterdam and West 88th Street there is a cluster of five shuttered and boarded-up buildings covered in graffiti.
- Multiple instances of graffiti were reported on nearly every block, with the largest clumps along Broadway.
- Graffiti removal is not the responsibility of one city agency, but instead is determined by where it is found, according to Brewer.
While multiple city agencies and organizations play different roles in graffiti removal, the Department of Sanitation took on the task of overseeing graffiti cleanup across the five boroughs from New York City’s Economic Development Corporation in April of 2023.
“Since taking over the program in April, we have closed more than 5,000 graffiti service requests, an 85 percent increase from the same period last year,” the Department of Sanitation told the West Side Rag when asked about Brewer’s letter. “We appreciate the Councilmember’s advocacy for clean streetscapes and look forward to continuing this work on the Upper West Side and across the five boroughs.”
Brewer added in the letter that the graffiti could affect property values.
“Graffiti makes the neighborhoods appear unsafe and neglected, can affect property values, and can deter customers from shopping at businesses that have been serving our community for years,” Brewer wrote.
Outside of buildings and mailboxes, graffiti in the neighborhood was also reported on streets, parking signs and meters, sidewalk sheds, garbage bins, dumpsters, street lights, bus stops, newspaper boxes, and fire hydrants.
Here’s an interactive map created by Brewer’s office of all the Upper West Side graffiti findings and the corresponding addresses.
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The rate of graffiti correlates closely with the rate of insecurity, on the one hand, and anti-social conduct, on the other. It’s not a trivial thing. It is something that the city and the police out to prioritize.
I could not agree more. The graffiti projects a feeling the vandals are in charge. Part of what helped bring the city back in the late 80s and 90s was cleaning up the subway cars and subway stations. I sympathize with the cost and effort property owner’s have to incur to clean up their properties, but I believe fines are in order for failure to keep the exterior of their building clean.
Lol Graffiti is the least of the problems NYC is facing. The Mayor is slashing budgets for everything except migrants. As NYPD overtime is slashed the most dangerous place to stand will be near the front door of the NYPD pension section. You might get run down by Cops rushing to retire. Graffiti lol.
No, it’s quite a problem. Many graffiti tags are GANG tags indicating turf and territory. That’s how they are identified and identify themselves. Name tag graffiti is an indication of larger urban blight problems, like neglect, economic loss, drug dealing, and gang warfare. This nothing to laugh about, either, if you are the property owner who gets fined and has to pay to remove the paint; or if you live here and have to look at this disgusting display 24/7. Slashing the budget for sanitation and police means the citizens will wind up paying for criminality. Also, young people end up moving from quality of life unpunished crime to larger hard core crimes. Their criminality escalates. All of it nothing to “LOL” about.
I believe you missed my point, While yes graffiti does add to increased crime because it creates a feeling of lawlessness. The problem is the proverbial crap is about to hit the proverbial fan. Slashing Police Overtime is going to cause huge problems. Let police on the streets. Most of the cops you see in the subway will be GONE. Officers below the rank of Captain with over 20 years will almost all leave in a few weeks. Not to mention the already dreadful morale will sink further. It’s will be pure triage and Graffiti will not be a priority,. But hey look on the bright side we can all rest well at night knowing our beloved migrants get free laundry service.
All of these have been disputed and ruled out. Comments like these are completely out of touch with the current street culture thriving in New York City; made up today entirely of young people under the age of 25.
95% of the graffiti on the street comes from a subculture originating in the NYC subway system that spread worldwide in the 1970’s. There is no correlation that writing graffiti is a gateway to more felonious levels of crime, like the argument from the 1980’s that marijuana leads to harder drugs.
What is a proven gateway is criminalizing young people for non violent crime that only leads them to become hardened in Riker’s where Corrections Officers work in tandem with organized street gangs by forcing young people to become violent at a pivotal time in their development.
Harm reduction and finding a way to allow the kids to provide the streets with some form of graffiti through commissioned murals and block jams on the street are a wonderful way to engage with the local community rather than alienating them.
you r solution is ineffective, and there’s nothing wrong with a business saying they don’t want people scrawling tings on their stores. Commissioned murals are fine, but they won’t solve the issue. they like the illegality of it and don’t want to be told here’s where you can do it. the’ll do it there, but won’t slow them down.
it should be criminalized proportionately, no one is sending people to prison for it. but the notion that yeah, just let them commit these small crimes because otherwise they will commit larger ones is nonsense. it just breeds a culture where lawlessness is tolerated. it’s these same teens we see riding illegal dirt bikes by the dozens. Got forbid they hit a car (that’s happened and they will attack the driver), or anyone says anything to them.
the notion these are just good kids studying hard on a college path or other career path but they just need a few walls to bomb is risible.
Again these comments are out of touch with the atmosphere of the culture of the street. Young people dictate the direction society goes in, not the older population. If the kids say they don’t mind and want graffiti on the street, then I’m afraid that’s the way it is. Property values be damned.
Until property rights – ie the right of an owner to determine whether or not to allow painting in his or her property – are also eliminated, it is a crime. Young or old, if it isnt yours, the law doesn’t give you the right to decorate or deface it.
Gale Brewer has to show she is doing something.
Does Gale Brewer support charging people who use graffiti? I hope so.
Plan 9 has some skills! (Or is it ICBM crew?) When it’s that cool visually, and confined to an entrance grate (out of sight in business hours) is it so bad? I know, go make murals, don’t tag small businesses, people have a right to unmarked property they care for….still kinda cool.
“Graffiti makes the neighborhoods appear unsafe and neglected, can affect property values, and can deter customers from shopping at businesses that have been serving our community for years,” Brewer wrote.”
Ah, that’s what the problem is with our neighborhood! Right on point, Gale! Fight these graffiti and everything will be all right.
If you’re looking at the graffiti you might not notice the homeless camps, children who are food insecure and people pooping on the streets… well played NYC politicians.
John-
Seems to me multiple things can be true at the same time…
For example, I’m a lifelong resident, work with homeless families – and unhappy about graffiti.
My neighbor is involved in social justice causes/progressive issues – but is a regular Uber user.
My uncle is a Republican – but a loving and supportive parent to his very non-Republican kids.
Etc
How many commercial notices, posters, and flyers are taped, stapled, and (sometimes still) wheat-pasted in this same district, particularly on public property and streetside fixtures? When these are posted far and wide without permission or penalty, what would dissuade anyone with graffiti in mind?
Not the same thing. Like 90% of that stuff is easy to remove.
Last week I saw a guy with a hole in his T-shirt on West 74th.
I clicked a couple dozen of these on the map and almost all of ’em were those colorful little sidewalk hearts, which are barely “graffiti” even by the standards of a suburban HOA.
Some people were freaking out about them on NextDoor last month and are probably submitting complaints every time their day is ruined by the sight of a lawless heart drawing.
The graffiti makes the UWS even more depressing. Any action Ms. Brewer can take would be most appreciated, whether it’s the white paint on the blue US mailbox outside my door or the walls of the decrepit buildings on Amsterdam. The homeless wandering around or parked at the church at 79th Street, the migrants asking me for money (is $380/day from the city not enough for these illegals?) contribute to the downward trend of our neighborhood. And yes, as somebody who worked hard to buy a place on the UWS, I do care about property values.
It’s funny how differently people can see a place. I don’t find the UWS depressing to look at in the least (though I do find graffiti ugly).
Gale Brewer got resources to for the survey that founed 370 pieces of graffiti. I would love to know how many man/hours it took. Yet she didn’t bother spend any time to survey what migrants at Stratford Arms did to our neighborhood for the entire summer, neither did she mention any issues regarding migrant students and overcrowded schools.
Who cares about the graffiti? Street art is a part of urban culture and no one will change that by cleaning up a few tags. There are real problems that are so much more important to address, like where all the new immigrants will be housed, how to stop immigrant children from being trafficked in our city, how to best help the homeless and mentally ill… We don’t solve the big problems because people incessantly focus on trivial bullshit like graffiti.
Hi Kesley,
In a city, there needs to be some collectiveness – not just folks feeling entitled to do what they want when they want where they want – ie presumably it would not be OK for my grandpa to blast opera outside where you live?
Or a Trump fan to do graffiti on Planned Parenthood offices?
I view your example of Trump graffiti on a planned parenthood office is a different beast. Hateful or intolerant speech and symbols are g the typical graffiti that we see. As for blasting opera outside my apartment, loud noise is part of city life, but even so that’s not a comparable example. One is a constant bother and the other is an eyesore at worst. I agree with you that people ought to have a basic sense of right and wrong and not vandalize buildings. My argument is simply that some problems are much more important and worthy of the city’s resources.
This isn’t culture, it’s just vandalism. It’s gross and anti-social.
Building owners and landlords should be fined if their buildings have graffiti. Just like any other clean up, they should be responsible or fined.
Absolutely not, why would you punish them for having graffiti they didn’t create? Some of us don’t mind the graffiti either, so that line of thinking is punitive towards the wrong group
Landlords and building owners are fined if their sidewalks are cracked and broken, even when the cause of the cracking are the roots from city owned trees. Fining for failure to clean up the exterior of their property is entirely appropriate.
Cracked sidewalks pose a danger to pedestrians, graffiti does not.
this is what happens when you tolerate lawlessness.
it seems right to say, well, let’s focus on bigger things, more serious violent crime and not worry so much about shoplifting, graffiti and so on.
Wrong. Because it leads to intolerable living conditions and foments more serious crime across the board because criminals are just pushing and pushing the envelope. It just snowballs.