Saturday, July 31, 2010

Insensitive Graffiti Cleaned Up by Tonia N. Cimino - The Queens Courier

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Andrew Baumann is thrilled.

After an article in last week’s Courier Sun – and a timely response by City Councilmember Eric Ulrich – the insensitive graffiti on the Bernard Fineson Center in Howard Beach has been eradicated.

On Wednesday, July 21, City Solve, the company Ulrich has hired to clean up graffiti in the area, painted over the tag that read “Dirtnikki ♥s retards.”

Pamela Baumann, who, along with her husband Andrew, founded New York Families for Autistic Children (NYFAC), said she was alerted to the graffiti on the Bernard Fineson Center on Monday, July 12.

She called Ulrich’s office, the 106th Precinct, Community Board 10 and others, and less than 10 days later, it was gone.

“Thank you Eric Ulrich,” said Andrew. “I’m very pleased with his responsiveness to the needs of the community. Graffiti to me is bad as it is, but when you add that word, you step over the line.”

“Eric specifically had City Solve come out, especially for that,” said Conor Greene, spokesperson. “How people would do that – it’s awful.”

In the meantime, Andrew hopes to never see those words scrawled anywhere, ever again.