Forest Hills, Rego Park Residents Fundraise For Graffiti Clean-Up

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A newly-formed volunteer group in Forest Hills and Rego Park has launched a GoFundMe fundraising campaign for an initiative to remove graffiti across the neighborhood.

The $5,000 fundraiser, which was created earlier this month, would pay for supplies such as paint and power washers, according to its description.

Led by longtime community advocates Michael Conigliaro and Michael Perlman, the Forest Hills & Rego Park Graffiti Cleanup Initiative is meant to fill the void left by the suspension earlier this year of a citywide graffiti-removal program.

City officials halted the $3 million Graffiti-Free NYC program as a cost-cutting measure near the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Graffiti is an urban blight that impacts our community’s quality of life by compromising its character, cleanliness, & property values, as well as contributes to additional graffiti if not cleaned as soon as possible," Perlman wrote in the GoFundMe description.

Interviewed by Perlman for a Forest Hills Times column, Conigliaro, a lifelong Rego Park resident, called the spate of graffiti "a complete disappointment."

"I want to work with other members of my community to beautify it," he said.