City Councilman Costa Constantinides, who represents Astoria and parts of Woodside, East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights, has set aside $52,500 of his $710,000 in annual discretionary funds to clean up graffiti in his district, DNAinfo reports.
“Our sidewalks and buildings are windows to the neighborhood and it is important to keep them clean and graffiti-free,” he said in a statement.
Constantinides is giving $15,000 to the Queens Economic Development Corporation, the borough’s leading anti-graffiti outfit, to start a cleanup program in the district, and $37,500 to the Central Astoria Local Development Coalition, which already runs a graffiti cleanup crew in the neighborhood.
Constantinides has allocated more than $40,000 more to combat graffiti this year than his fellow Queens Councilman Eric Ulrich, a sworn enemy of graffiti.
Astoria is home to the Welling Court Mural Project, a tremendous annual street art project that functions as an open-air gallery of some of the finest urban art in the city.
(Photo: Aymann Ismail/ANIMALNewYork)
