LOWER EAST SIDE — City officials are dedicating significant resources to aggressively tackle graffiti removal, calling unwanted spray-painting a "quality of life" issue that must be addressed.
The Department of Transportation will spend $1 million to remove graffiti from bridges and other infrastructure over the next year, said Commissioner Polly Trottenberg on Friday at a press conference below the Manhattan Bridge as department workers sprayed down tags under the overpass.
"These quality of life issues signal that the city is safe," she said.
The demonstration comes days after the New York Post published a staff editorial reporting the DOT had trashed their graffiti removal team, accusing the mayor and the transportation department of turning a blind eye to the city's rampant graffiti problem.
Trottenberg insisted the accusation was unfounded, stating their crew routinely inspects infrastructure within their purview and scrubs graffiti on an as-need basis.
"There has been some implication that DOT had been stepping back on our efforts," she said. "We haven't been."
Over the course of the next year, the department will remove 4.5 million square feet of graffiti from bridges and other structures across the city, said Trottenberg.
Meanwhile, the mayor has dedicated roughly $7 million of his annual budget to the city's Economic Development Corporation, which oversees graffiti removal on homes and private businesses — an allocation the Commissioner called an "aggressive new step."
