Senator Golden Uses Facebook To Catch Graffiti Artists

Apparently Facebook isn’t just for looking up stupid cat videos, or flashing mad bling; it can do a thing or two on top of that.

State Senator Marty Golden, for example, is using his Facebook page to help catch graffiti artists who have been vandalizing his district.

Since November 6, Golden has posted photos of a mailbox and hair salon covered with graffiti from Third Avenue and a utility box on 78th Street. Eight buildings on Third Avenue between 74th Street and 80th Street have been marked, said Bruce Pienkny, the president of CitySolve, in a New York Daily News article about Golden’s Facebook efforts.

CitySolve is a program that was created in 2009 by Golden to address the community’s graffiti problem. Every month, the program’s vehicles will drive through the neighborhood and clean up graffiti incidents.

Ralph “Tatu XMen” Perez, a graffiti artist, believes Golden is only provoking more graffiti because “it’s going to fuel the fire” by giving the “artists” more of what they want: attention.

“Blasting their stuff out there is not the way to do it…If these kids find this out they’re going to go bomb Bay Ridge even more,” said Perez. “To these kids, that’s fame, that’s being recognized, and that’s all they want.”

“The notoriety they’re going to get with me, they won’t like. The attention I’m going to give them is called prosecution,” Golden responded in the article. “They’re going to get arrested, they’re going to go into the system, the district attorney is going to prosecute them.”

Residents wishing to report graffiti can request they be cleaned by calling Senator Golden’s office at (718) 238-6044 or via e-mail at golden@senate.state.ny.us