Sabini Calls For A Renewed War On Graffiti
by john toscano

State Senator John Sabini (front, center) was joined by (left to right): Debbie Cohen, president of the 110th Precinct Community Council; Francisco and Edgar Moya of the Corona Gardens Civic Association; and Joe DiMartino and Jimmy Lisa of the Corona Lions Club.

State Senator John Sabini, citing the continued nuisance of graffiti in Queens, has called on the Police Department to keep its graffiti squad intact and to get its state-of-the-art anti-graffiti truck rolling again.

The Jackson Heights Corona lawmaker was joined by community groups in making the demands.

Sabini, declared: “You walk around Western Queens and some other parts of the city these days and you see more and more graffiti everywhere.”

Sabini (D–Jackson Heights) is running for re-election next Tuesday in the primary elections. His district covers Jackson Heights, Corona and East Elmhurst. He is opposed for the Democratic nomination by Luis Rosero, 31, an aide to a Long Island congressmember and a former staffer of the Democratic National Committee. Rosero ran for the City Council in the 2001 Democratic primary, but lost.

Standing in front of graffitied building walls in Corona Sabini added, “[Graffiti] diminishes quality of life and property values and contributes to the ‘broken window’ effect, in which a neighborhood that’s been vandalized invites more crime since it looks like no one cares.

“But we care and I’m sure as people in other graffiti-stricken neighborhoods throughout Queens and the city find out about the Police Department’s plans, they will, too.”

Sabini said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has met with top Police Department brass to consider merging the police graffiti squad with the Transit Bureau vandals unit, a move that Sabini and even members of the graffiti squad fear will lead to a rise in graffiti vandalism throughout the city.

Sabini criticized the proposed merger, saying, “merging the NYPD’s graffiti squad with the Transit Bureau’s vandalism unit is going to lead to more graffiti in our neighborhoods, not less.”

Joined by members of the Corona Gardens Civic Association, the Corona Lions Club and Corona VFW Post 150, Sabini added:

“Without a specific focus on graffiti, and with the added burden of policing the subways instead of just the streets, our graffiti cops will be spread too thin in both body and purpose.

“I call on Commissioner Kelly to give up this initiative and stop trying to reorganize the department at the expense of neighborhoods most in need of police attention.”

Francisco Moya, Corona Gardens Civic Association president, agreed with Sabini and also called on Kelly to scrap the merger proposal. “It’s bad for Corona and it’s bad for New York City,” Maya declared.

Sabini also requested that the mayor’s office provide staff for the state-of-the art, $45,000 anti-graffiti painting truck which Sabini as a councilmember funded in its entirety in 1998.

The truck is currently sitting unused in a Department of Sanitation yard in Woodside, Sabini said. He charged that the city won’t provide funding for the licensed painters needed to operate it, despite the recent creation of the Mayor’s Anti-Graffiti Task Force.

“The last time I saw that truck utilized was when Mayor [Rudolph] Giuliani used it for a photo op,” Sabini commented. “Now the city won’t even acknowledge its existence, hiding it in a garage and taking references to it down from its Web site. I call on Mayor Bloomberg to reconsider his strategy and get the anti-graffiti truck rolling before the graffiti problem gets much worse.”

Sabini said he arranged for the truck to be brought into his district in 1998 after seeing firsthand how it effectively combatted graffiti in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It has a computer-controlled color matching system that analyses the original color of a surface and mixes different paints to match. A high-powered, cold water pressure washer prepares surfaces before repainting, which is done with either a roller or power sprayer.