By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
EAST VILLAGE — An East 13th Street building repeatedly vandalized by taggers treating it as their personal canvas is frustrating tenants who have failed to combat the constant flow of spray paint.
The half-block-long Verizon building at the corner of Second Avenue has weathered a barrage of graffiti that reappears every time the tags are painted over.
"We'll try to clean it off, and the next thing you know…" said Verizon employee Sam Ashraf, who manages the phone company's retail store in the building. "It just looks bad."
The NYPD's 9th Precinct has observed the building for years, even sending undercover officers to stake out the site and making numerous arrests, said Det. Jaime Hernandez, a 22-year-old veteran of the neighborhood.
But that hasn't kept vandals from returning every time they see a new spot to spray white paint over the brown-hued wall, he said.
"It is a canvas when you look at it — brown and white go very well together," he said.
The Department of Sanitation responded to the location in April and September to paint over the graffiti, a spokesman said — but each time a fresh coat went up, the vandals moved right back in.
Local blog EV Grieve has chronicled the persistent painting since last spring, noting that the presence of surveillance cameras has done little to ward off taggers.
To deal with the graffiti scourge, Hernandez suggested that Verizon bring in a muralist to paint the wall, noting that street art rarely gets run over by vandals because of the respect given to the work.
"That would alleviate the problem," he said, adding that a mural could involve local schoolchildren. "Whenever you put a mural and a positive message up, it won't get touched."
Notable neighborhood street artists like Antonio "Chico" Garcia — who made news recently when a cable company painted over his large mural of President Obama on Avenue C — have long covered graffiti-prone walls with their own works to keep them free of the unsightly scrawls.
But a spokesman for Verizon said not to expect a mural to go up anytime soon.
"We typically do not permit murals to be painted on our buildings," said media relations manager Rich Young, adding that the company will continue to paint over the graffiti as it goes up.
"We take pride in our buildings and facilities. When an issue is brought to our attention, we work quickly to address it.
But Sam Ashraf, manager of the building's ground-floor Verizon store, said he's tired of seeing the eyesore each day on his way to work.
"It's miserable," he said. "But it's New York."
