CB 11 and 62nd Precinct join forces to wipe out graffiti

On Saturday, April 27, Community Board 11 and the 62^nd Precinct teamed up to sponsor a graffiti clean-up of Bath Avenue near Bay Parkway.

“It’s so important to our community. Graffiti is a blight that brings down the neighborhood,” explained Marnee Elias-Pavia, CB 11’s district manager. “There is absolutely no reason for it to be out there.”

Elias-Pavia noted that police officers from the 62^nd Precinct made about 10 arrests this month pertaining to graffiti.

“We just want to come out and remove any traces [of graffiti],” she said. “This is our neighborhood and we won’t tolerate it.”

Elias-Pavia also toured New Utrecht Avenue with the mayor’s office last week, collecting wavers to allow a graffiti removal truck to come by and paint over any tags. The commercial corridor has become a magnet for graffiti artists, with plenty of tempting gray gates to tag.

“Marnee is taking the neighborhood back, one block at a time,” commented Lou Trimboli, president of the 62^nd Precinct Community Council.

Volunteers from the Bay Parkway Worker’s Justice Project and the Muslim Youth Center came out to help paint over graffiti along Bath Avenue.

Trimboli noted how great it was to see different ethnic groups working side by side, something he regularly sees in the precinct.

“Together, we will clean our neighborhood,” he said.