CAN’T BRUSH IT OFF!
City seeks artists to reclaim graffiti-tagged subway tunnel
The city is looking for artists to again beautify an upper Manhattan pedestrian subway tunnel that it can’t keep free of graffiti.
The Department of Transportation announced Thursday that it seeks artists to paint murals on the walls of a 900-foot-long pedestrian tunnel (photo) leading from the No. 1 train platform to Broadway at the W. 191st St. station in Washington Heights.
“The 191st St. tunnel is a community landmark, providing critical connection between Broadway and the 1 train for tens of thousands of New Yorkers,” Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement. Rodriguez used to represent the area on the City Council.
The tunnel is an on-again, off-again canvas for New York City graffiti taggers, who duel city-paid painters for control of the space.
For years, graffiti mobbed the walls of the tunnel — which unlike the state-run subway system is owned by the city Department of Transportation.
Around 2015, the city painted over the tags with murals by artists it hired. But over time, those paintings were covered again in graffiti, locals told the Daily News
After the Daily News reported on the ongoing blight in January, the city struck back in January by slapping white paint on the problem.
“They had made an art piece here and then they started graffiting over it and then one day it was all blank,” said Lauren Rodriguez, a 23-year-old teaching assistant who live in the neighborhood.
But on Thursday the freshly painted walls were already covered with graffiti scrawls. “I’ve never seen anyone graffiti here — but it always ends up here,” Rodriguez said.
The 191st St. passage is also a popular site for drug use in the neighborhood, locals said.
On a recent day, Rodriguez said, she saw “needles everywhere on the floor. I saw a whole bunch of them.”
“They shoot fentanyl here,” said a man who gave his name as Carlos. “They always do it.”
“Nothing wrong with the tunnel. There’s no robberies, there’s no crime, it’s just people shooting up,” he said. “They’re homeless. They have nowhere else to do it.”
“It’s sad. It’s been like this forever.”