City Suspends Graffiti Removal Program Amidst Budget Cuts
The illicit output of taggers and street artists will likely remain uncleansed, as the city suspended its graffiti-removal program.
The $3 million Graffiti-Free NYC program, which power washes paint from the streets, had been suspended since March. However, as the de Blasio administration finds ways to bridge a $9 billion budget deficit, it’s now on indefinite hiatus.
“The city has suspended the Graffiti-Free NYC program indefinitely,” mayoral spokeswoman Laura Feyer told the Wall Street Journal last week, “to ensure the city can continue to devote resources to essential safety, health, shelter and food security needs.”
Public data shows that Graffiti-Free NYC cleaned 14,236 sites this past fiscal year, up from 9,861 sites in fiscal year 2017.
The loss of the program puts the onus of cleaning on each business owner.
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