Downtown Alliance Takes Cleanup to Tribeca

The Downtown Alliance went beyond its boundaries—and the call of duty— to clean graffiti from businesses along four blocks of Tribeca. 

The area covered by the FiDi-focused business improvement district goes only as far north as Murray Street, but for two weeks this month an Alliance sanitation crew scrubbed storefronts on Tribeca blocks between Chambers, Duane and Church Streets.

“You could see the visual impact so clearly,” said Jessica Lappin, president of the Alliance, “and I’m told the shopkeepers were over-the-moon grateful and kind, and thanked [the workers] profusely.”

Lappin said the Alliance “very selectively” cleans beyond its coverage area because their crews are stretched, especially these days. Most recently, at the request of the NYPD, they cleaned the graffiti scrawls of protesters in the City Hall area. 

The request for this cleanup came from Bob Townley, the executive director of Manhattan Youth, who lives in the area. “We wanted to do it when we saw how it looked,” Lappin said. “It looked awful.” 

“The truth is,” Lappin noted, “there really isn’t anybody else in the city that does that anymore.”