From the Forum:
Lindenwood residents were pleased to see the remnants of a graffiti attack in their neighborhood last week obliterated on Monday morning.
Quick action taken by the Lindenwood Alliance coordinated the graffiti removal through the office of Councilman Eric Ulrich and building owner Dr. Anthony Napolitano.
City Solve, a company hired by Ulrich when he began his zero tolerance graffiti initiative in 2009, handled the removal of the extensive tagging found on the façade of the Medical Arts Center on 151st Avenue in Lindenwood.
Bruce Pienky, owner of City Solve, says that the surface provided for a more difficult removal than usual because of the very porous composition of the stone used on the face of the building. One of his technicians applied chemical to the surface and let it soak in before using a high capacity power washer to strip the tags from the building.
When the scrawling was first discovered, Dr. Napolitano immediately decided to seek expert opinion about having the building treated with a substance to make future removals easier. But, Pienky told Napolitano that the procedure to coat the building was very expensive and advised against the expenditure, citing the fact that the location does not have chronic problems and that this was likely a random occurrence.
Dr. Napolitano countered with the fact that he takes great pride in the neighborhood his practice has called home for over 30 years. “While I appreciate Bruce’s gesture to try and save me some money, I consider this my home. It’s something I want to protect and keep the way people are used to having it kept,” Napolitano said. “So we’re going to move forward with by taking preventative steps. The money is not an issue — keeping the community the way it is now, that’s the issue.”
And so despite advice from Pienky, Dr. Napolitano has decided to proceed with having the building coated with a special anti-graffiti sealer. The product is roughly $100 per gallon and the building is estimated to require about 12 gallons to complete the job in addition to substantial labor costs.
6 comments:
The problem with this stuff is, that if the building gets hit with graffiti again and removed, the sealant must be reapplied on the spots where the graff was removed.
$100 a gallon!
Oops...now Prudential is going to raise your rates.
There's something nice about a greedy big time insurance investment giant being hit by a graffiti attack.
The little guy gets to speak. His writing on their wall.
Maybe Prudential screwed someone by denying them their claim payment, and they went out and got even.
Anon No. 3:
An maybe that person was just an annoying dweep wanting to vandalize a building and saw that as a target.
That building was an invite...
considering the porous material that clads it.
The dumb-ass MTA once painted their #7 trains white.
Tell me that wasn't an empty canvas for graff vandals!
There is nothing "nice" about any graffiti. It is vandalism.
I praise all concerned for taking immediate action. If this were done more often there would be less vandalism.
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