Nothing sent a stronger signal in the late 1980s that New York was determined to fight back from anarchy than the transit system's campaign against subway graffiti.
Mayor de Blasio paid lip service to Broken Windows during his first term in City Hall, undoubtedly pressed to do so by Police Commissioner William Bratton, who had also served as Giuliani's first police chief.
The official reason for the termination of the graffiti-removal program-whereby building owners and residents could report graffiti to the city's 311 line and get assistance in removing it-was New York's straitened coronavirus finances.
The administration found the resources this June to pay city workers to paint massive "Black Lives Matter" logos on the street in front of Trump Tower and on avenues in Harlem and Brooklyn; de Blasio himself, on the taxpayer's dime, joined the BLM paint-ins to make sure that President Trump got the message.
To his credit, New York governor Andrew Cuomo has called out de Blasio and the city for tolerating graffiti.
"I think the city makes a big mistake in not addressing these situations," Cuomo said yesterday at a press briefing about the escalating gun violence in New York.
Ironically, the city is a lot safer for graffiti vandals today than it was in the 1980s, in part thanks to policies that got rid of the disorder that graffiti represents.
Mayor de Blasio paid lip service to Broken Windows during his first term in City Hall, undoubtedly pressed to do so by Police Commissioner William Bratton, who had also served as Giuliani's first police chief.
The official reason for the termination of the graffiti-removal program-whereby building owners and residents could report graffiti to the city's 311 line and get assistance in removing it-was New York's straitened coronavirus finances.
The administration found the resources this June to pay city workers to paint massive "Black Lives Matter" logos on the street in front of Trump Tower and on avenues in Harlem and Brooklyn; de Blasio himself, on the taxpayer's dime, joined the BLM paint-ins to make sure that President Trump got the message.
To his credit, New York governor Andrew Cuomo has called out de Blasio and the city for tolerating graffiti.
"I think the city makes a big mistake in not addressing these situations," Cuomo said yesterday at a press briefing about the escalating gun violence in New York.
Ironically, the city is a lot safer for graffiti vandals today than it was in the 1980s, in part thanks to policies that got rid of the disorder that graffiti represents.
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