by Beth Kowitt photographs by Karsten Moran
In his three years of painting over vandalized mailboxes in Inwood, one of the worst moments for Martin Collins came a few weeks ago when kids pelted him with rocks while he was working on a box on Post Avenue.
Collins called the police but said the culprits ran before help arrived. Despite being a bit shaken, the 43-year-old lifelong Inwood resident continues to go out every other weekend to paint mailboxes defaced by graffiti.
He said he also has a strategy to avoid further assaults: “Move quickly, no eye contact and get on to the next box.”
Collins works through the United States Post Service’s adopt-a-mailbox program, which supplies paint to individuals and community groups nationwide to paint over vandalized mailboxes. But Collins hasn’t just adopted a mailbox in front of his house or a few on his block. He seems to have taken on most of the mailboxes in Inwood. Even on the coldest day so far this fall with the temperature in the low 50s, Collins — shielded from the wind by only his red beard, sunglasses and wearing paint-splattered shorts, a t-shirt and sandals — set out to paint 40 of what the post office says are Inwood’s 111 boxes. It would be one of his last trips out before winter.
“I just got tired of seeing [graffiti] all over the mailboxes,” said Collins, as he pushed a shopping cart carrying paint cans down the street. “It’s unsightly. It just gives the impression that no one cares.”
The first box he painted was on Nagle Avenue and was covered in bright pink-and-white, indecipherable signatures of graffiti artists, or “tags” as they’re known in the graffiti and police worlds. Collins taped a “Wet Paint” sign written in English, Spanish and Russian on the box. He said sometimes the boxes are so graffiti-covered that when he’s done painting he has to tape his sign to the ground because there’s no dry spot on the mailbox.
Collins, who works as a public address and play-by-play sports announcer for organizations including Columbia University, has become an expert in Inwood graffiti. He knows the green mailboxes are hit more often than the blue: “The green mailboxes offer a larger canvas.” He knows the major culprits: “This guy ‘DAMN’ is very popular.” Collins even knows the best time of day to paint: “You’ve got to start early in the morning or there’s too much disruption” with all the people out on the streets.
Collins, a longtime Community Board 12 member and its former chair, said graffiti has always been a problem in Inwood, but it hit its peak three years ago, right before he started wielding his paintbrush.
According to officers at Inwood’s 34th Police Precinct, the graffiti situation has improved since then, partly because they have been more committed to arresting offenders. Officer Jaccell Liranzo, the assistant to the precinct’s graffiti coordinator, said the precinct has made more arrests — 55 so far this year compared with 54 total in 2006 — even though graffiti artists are less active. She said the work of residents like Collins also has helped.
“[The graffiti artists] get discouraged,” she said. “It’s a lot of work but it’s the only way. If we don’t care about where we live, no one else will.”
But Inwood graffiti artists like Chris, 17, who would only give his first name to avoid being associated with the illegal activity, said the efforts of people like Collins are fruitless.
“They’re wasting their time because we’ll just paint over it again,” he said. “It gives you a rush when you know you’re not supposed to be doing it.”
Chris, who has been doing graffiti for five years, said he doesn’t tag mailboxes anymore, but goes for bigger targets like buildings. He said people tagging mailboxes are, “Just starting out or are not that into it.”
Some community members seem prepared to counter graffiti artists like Chris who say they won’t stop. Steve Wolgast, a regular mailbox painter in Inwood, said sometimes people passing by tell him he’ll just have to paint over the boxes again. “I tell them it’s like brushing your teeth or making your bed,” Wolgast said, adding it’s something you have to do regularly no matter how clean the rest of your life is.
Wolgast, an editor at The New York Times, said the graffiti he sees ranges from signs of gang activity to “graffiti tourism,” where people sign their names to signal they’ve visited a location.
The charge and punishment for graffiti depends on the amount of damage, said Liranzo. Damage appraised at $250 is considered a misdemeanor and anything above that amount is a felony.
But Collins said he doesn’t think the punishment for tagging is harsh enough. He noted that when people vandalize mailboxes, they’re defacing federal property. It would help, he said, if police arrested more vandals and increased the weight of penalties. “It promotes repeated graffiti efforts if the penalty is a slap on the wrist every time you do it,” Collins said.
Until then, Collins said he’s just going to keep heading back out to paint.
“You’d think you’d be able to keep some of it graffiti-free but you can’t,” he said. “I’m not going to let it sit there. They’ll put it back, and I’ll take it off again.”