By NEWSROOM
With the warm weather, businesses have been getting up and getting out. They are finding their buildings marked up with graffiti, impacting the quality of life in the Pine Hills neighborhood.
The eastern wall of Paesan’s Pizza, located at 289 Ontario St, has been a target of graffiti and owner Vincent Scavio ends up painting over the ‘street art’ himself.
“I thought people were done with graffiti and it seems like its coming back,” said Scavio.
The graffiti is actually affecting Scavio’s clientele with people not wanting to come into the business because it looks run down, he said. Scavio thinks the reason behind the spike in graffiti is due to the abandon buildings in the neighborhood. Scavio usually paints over the graffiti within a day after it appears, he said.
“It’s bad for business, bad for our neighborhood, and people don’t care,” said Scavio.
There are two ways to report graffiti; a resident can call the police, or a passwer by can utilize the City of Albany’s app “SeeClickFix” where a photo can be uploaded and sent to the appropriate department.
The problem with the online app is that it is not quick enough said Domynick LaScala, owner of Madison Mart at 870 Madison Ave. between Partridge Street and Ontario Street. LaScala is taking action by removing graffiti in the general area around Madison Mart. He even has two cans of “Goof Off”, a type of graffiti remover. Business owners are not the only ones fed up with the issue, but residents are too.
“They need to stop it. It’s childish. It’s everywhere,” said Timmy Brook, a local resident who lives on Morris Street. “They even marked up the inside of the house we’re renovating now.”
According to code §255-38.1 sections A and B, property owners are responsible for painting over and removing graffiti within 20 days of written notice said Eva Petkanas, community relations coordinator for the department of general services in Albany.
However, if graffiti is not covered in a certain time or it is on public property, the city has a unit that goes out daily to cover the areas that have been violated said Ptl. Joe Acquaviva
“There’s graffiti that’s useless and has no purpose, such as scribbles. While on the other hand there is graffiti that is art,” said LaScala.
This article was researched and reported by Amal Assery, Esrraa Felemban, Adriana Rosales, Vincent Rullo, Hanna Teal and Molly-Kate Webster.
