Is Hinck Way Mineola’s ‘Graffiti Way’?

Eight-foot chain-link fences and concrete highway dividers run up the length of the one-way road, funneling cars down the steep hill toward the underpass. Low-growing plants creep across the sidewalk, obscuring the pathway as the profuse smell put off by the adjacent sump permeates the air. Up further the dark paint of markings hastily spray-painted in the night bleed through new layers of paint, attempts to mask the vandalism, yet only partially succeeding. A decorative lamp post adorns the street, an attempt to beautify the back-alley roadway, yet only partially succeeding as its yellowed-hued light is cast upon concrete cinder blocks that make up the back wall of the building. At its base there lies more markings, large letters in deep black scrawled across the sidewalk.

This is Hinck Way in Mineola, but some have taken to replacing the name of the former village mayor in the sign with another phrase, labeling it “Graffiti Way.”

Nancy Desorbo of Wisteria Avenue calls it that, doing do at the July 10 meeting of the village board at the village hall, saying that the makings had not been removed in a year.

“Somebody has to be held responsible to remove this, it’s a disgrace,” she said. “Just because it’s the back of the buildings, doesn’t mean that it’s not an eyesore.”

Mayor Scott Strauss said that the police and the board were aware of the markings, which have also appeared in other locations around the village.

“We’ve reached out to the business owners, we’re working with them to get it painted, however, it does not, the building owners who didn’t paint it, so having them continually repaint the backs of their buildings, which is actually the front of Hinck Way, is not solving the problem,” Strauss said. “The problem is kids whose parents aren’t watching what they’re doing, aren’t concerned, they’re getting spray cans and they’re repainting the buildings that have just been repainted.”

Desorbo also reporting seeing teenagers skateboarding up and down the steep incline leading to Roslyn Road.

“That’s a very dangerous situation,” she said, asking for signage to be put up barring the behavior. “God forbid they go down that hill and they end up out in Roslyn Road, not only could a driver be killed but they could be killed.”

While the road is a public street, Strauss was not aware if they could bar skateboarding in the area.

“I’d like to look into it, the mayor makes a point,” village attorney John Spellman said. “I’m not sure we can have selective banning of skateboarding or other vehicular activities on our roads unless we do it across the entire village.”

Spellman said that he was familiar with the area as he drives by it on his way home and observed teens make a “buildup” to a makeshift ramp but crews removed it “so we’re trying to discourage them from making it their home,” he said. “Fortunately it was active a while back, it isn’t as active as it was; I know there are a few kids still hanging out there.”

Graffiti has also been found on the abandoned gas station at the corner of Herricks Road and Wilson Boulevard, behind Dover Publications and according to Desorbo, on the deli and pizza parlor on Geranium Avenue and Albertson Place and a store on Mineola Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue.

Strauss said that gas station owner had been summonsed and fined thousands of dollars and been forced to repaint, but therein lies a problem.

“It didn’t last two days,” the mayor said, “and now we’ve got to go back to him because these kids spray painted it again. Repainting the buildings, we can repaint them every day and until we get some responsibility taking and assistance from the Nassau County Police Department... I guarantee that it’s going to continue to happen, unfortunately.”

Trustee Dennis Walsh stated that the brick building on Mineola Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue had ground down to remove the old graffiti off of the brick work but more graffiti was present again.

“When you start tagging on brick and the brick has to be grinded down, you just keep making it more porous and just more difficult to get rid of,” Walsh said.
“Every time a business owner paints over a new surface, gets rid of the graffiti, we’ve given them a clean canvas to paint on. I understand your concern but to continually hit the business owners for $300, $400, $500 time and time again, we’re not solving the problem, we’re only masking it,” Strauss said. “To go after the business owners who, some of them are holding on by a wing and a prayer, business-wise to try and stay afloat, to have them spend hundreds and sometimes over thousands of dollars to repaint their buildings three, four, five, six times a year, we’re not solving the problem by doing that. We’re masking the problem, we’re not solving it.”

Typically a business has between a week to 10 days to respond to a graffiti summons and to rectify the problem before having fines levied.

Desorbo, acknowledging that the pizzeria did paint over but that the graffiti had bled through, was not satisfied with the mayor’s comments, asking for an increase in police patrols - which is an issue with police coverage as there are not enough police officers – and for cameras to be installed.

“For someone like myself who lives that life every day of surveillance equipment, cameras are only good if you can put a name to the face and unless you’re putting in high-end cameras, chances are pretty well you’re just going to see a guy in a hood, a hoodie sweatshirt, come up, spray paint the side of the building and run down the block and hop in a car or on a bike and that’s not going to be covered,” said Strauss, adding that the police had reached out to the school district to see if any association with students.

Still, Desorbo was not satisfied.

“If it has to be done over and over it has to be done over and over until they solve the problem. If you have to do it every week, you do it every week until the person gets tired of doing it and moves on,” she said.

“They don’t get tired of it, they get a clean slate,” Strauss retorted. “The only people that get tired of it, Mrs. Desorbo is the business owner who has to pay time and time again to have the building repainted; those are the people that will move on.”

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