Village Investigates Resident’s Claims of “Blight”

The Village of Mineola has investigated a resident’s recent claims of blight and gang presence in the village, specifically around the intersection of Willis Avenue and Lincoln Avenue.

The resident, who claimed to live on Lincoln Avenue, quoted a section of the village municipal code during the December 7 meeting of the covering “blight” and its prevention via maintenance of property and graffiti, which he claimed were present on the southeast corner Lincoln and Willis Avenue.

Among the resident’s claims were that garbage was piled up “seven days a week,” sometimes “4 feet high.” He also claimed that graffiti was present on the building and that the facade was in such a state of disrepair that it was falling off.

“The building is falling down, pieces of the building are literally falling off the building where children wait for the school bus,” he said, holding up photos of alleged gang tags – graffiti markings – that he said were the marks of “18th Street” and “MS 13” gangs.

said that he would have building department representatives at the location the following day.

The mayor stated that he visited the location several hours after the conclusion of the meeting and visits were also made by village building inspectors and personnel from the Third Precinct.

In a follow-up telephone conversation, Mayor Strauss reported to the Mineola Patch that “there’s nothing there,” at the location the resident indicated. “I don’t know when that happened.”

A number of photographs the resident submitted to the village board also showed snow on the ground upon closer inspection, indicating that they had not been taken recently.

“Those pictures (have) got to be years old,” the mayor said. “There were piles of snow around them. The guy’s sending up alarms and panicking people about gangs that don’t exist.”