Photo via EssG's flickr
For years the city needed permission from property owners in order to clean up graffiti, but as of April 7th there's a new law in town. Now the Department of Sanitation's taxpayer-funded Graffiti Free NYC program doesn't need to go through a long waiver-signing process before going to work on what some see as nothing more than illegal eyesores. South Bronx graff-watchdog Sidney Flores told the Daily News, "The faster they get the graffiti, the better. We need to take our streets back."
The program will deal with backlogged complaints first, then take it tag by tag from there. They'll have a lot more work on their hands—the paper points out that "1,500 Bronx owners who were mailed graffiti waivers from July 2009 on failed to respond," leaving the DoS with their hands tied. With the new law, if an owner doesn't respond within 35 days, they can buff away. Business owners with graffiti you consider artwork, you've been warned.
