Graffiti cleanups have been an ongoing effort for volunteers with the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association, with the next installment slated for this Sunday morning. File Photo
Woodhaven volunteers will hit the streets once again this weekend in an ongoing effort to rid the streets of unsightly graffiti.
The Woodhaven Residents’ Block Assocation first launched the latest graffiti cleanup initiative earlier this summer and have since spent several weekends pounding the pavement and repainting parts of Woodhaven. The group said its next installment of graffiti cleanups would continue on Sunday, Sept. 7 at 10 a.m. and any interested volunteers could reach them at info@woodhaven-nyc.org.
“We definitely have a big problem with graffiti in this community. We get a lot of complaints about it,” former WRBA head Ed Wendell said at a meeting earlier this summer. “We see it getting out of hand again and we want to encourage people to start reporting it.”
The civic has since spent weeks driving through the community to paint over mailboxes, fences and more.
City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) also joined in on the anti-graffiti game when he announced his securing of funding in July to help revitalize parts of Woodhaven, including Jamaica Avenue, with a graffiti removal program and other amenities.
Ulrich said the Queens Economic Development Corporation would be working to revitalize an anti-graffiti initiative the residents of Woodhaven once enjoyed before it slowly faded away over the last year. The councilman also said he secured money to bring new street lights along Jamaica Avenue and also install new high-end litter baskets for the area.
The anti-graffiti program, Ulrich said, started last month.
“This will be a very robust, aggressive quality-of-life program that we are going to kick off here,” Ulrich said. “In the last year and a half, I have been very disappointed in the program. That’s why I helped secure this money and put it in a better place.”
