“When a neighborhood has graffiti, it looks like an area you don’t care about,” Francisco said.
   Instead of weighing the benefits and hazards of industrial-strength cleaners and chemicals, she and other homeowners and business owners now have an ally in their fight against blight.
   Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) announced on Friday plans to stamp out graffiti vandalism from three of the community’s most problematic areas — 101st Avenue between 75th Street and 111th Street, Rockaway Boulevard between 75th Street and 111th Street and Woodhaven Boulevard and Cross Bay Boulevard between Atlantic Avenue and the Joseph P. Addabbo Bridge.
   At a meeting held in front of the Met Supermarket on 101st Avenue in Ozone Park — itself a victim of a graffiti attack — Ulrich outlined the details of his Anti-Graffiti Removal Program, for which he secured $30,000 in city funding. The money will be used to clean and repaint blemished areas, as well as set up a dedicated telephone hotline that residents can use to report graffiti in their neighborhoods or home property and request free clean-up services.
   “For far too long, graffiti vandalism has destroyed the quality of life in our neighborhoods,” said Ulrich, who is running for re-election this year against Democrat Frank Gulluscio. “Over time, it has lowered our property values and created a false impression of lawlessness. Most of all, these community eyesores ruin our civic pride and often invite other more serious crimes to take place.”
   To assist in the operation, Ulrich is working with officers from the 106th Precinct, members of the Greater Woodhaven Development Corporation and CitySolve Systems, an organization that won the bid to help rid the neighborhood of graffiti. From now until June 30, CitySolve will clean each affected area and then perform monthly inspections and maintenance, as needed. The city will review the program’s success at the end of the fiscal year before renewing their contract. The plan relies on the city’s ability to surpass the graffiti vandals’ efforts — to beat them at their own game in the hopes they will grow weary of having to re-tag the same clean wall multiple times. It may sound like a lofty goal, but Ulrich and community advocates believe it will work.
   “Our community is a very stable and beautiful place to live, work and raise a family,” said Maria Thomson, president of the Greater Woodhaven Development Corporation. “Through this program, we now have a powerful tool to keep it that way by keeping our business and residential districts graffiti-free.”
   At least one strip that suffers from graffiti, Liberty Avenue, is not included in the first phase of the plan, but residents are encouraged to call the hotline and report graffiti sightings, whether they take place inside or outside the designated “graffiti-free zones.”
   Perhaps surprisingly, the business of removing graffiti is finger-paint simple. After Ulrich made his announcement, the councilman rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a power washing tool — which looks like a cross between a garden hose and a musket — and joined a team of CitySolve graffiti removal experts in erasing all traces of graffiti from Met’s brick side wall.
   Residents cheered when they saw that, within a matter of seconds, their neighborhood grocery store’s defaced wall was squeaky clean.
    Sheila Wilson, who moved to Ozone Park from Harlem six months ago, was among those swayed by the demonstration.
   “This is fantastic — this is great. They’re doing a good job,” Wilson said. “The community is going to look beautiful.”
   To report graffiti, contact the Anti-Graffiti Removal Program hotline at (718) 738-1429.