43rd Avenue, 43rd Street (Photo: Sunnyside Post)
Feb. 23, 2015 By Christian Murray
A graffiti vandal has been targeting the walls of Sunnyside spraying his tag SBR all over stores on 42nd Street, 43rd Street and 44th Street.
The police are following up on it; Sunnyside Shines has been struggling to clean it; and Jimmy Van Bramer’s office has been brought into the loop.
The likely perpetrator of these tags goes under fictitious Facebook handle Esayebeare Bereal, where he showcases some of his work. Despite his false name, he has many friends who follow his posts.
The owner of an establishment on 43rd Street described the graffiti as “childish and ridiculous.”
“I don’t know what people get out of it? Some sort of high,” he said, without giving his name out of concern that his store might get tagged next. “I don’t know whether writing an article about him will encourage him, stop him or even help lead to his arrest,” the owner said.
Esayebeare Bereal engaged in a Facebook chat with the Sunnyside Post last week (see full transcript below), where he admitted to doing it and said he does it to be famous. He said that he was raised in Sunnyside and admitted to tagging under the name SBR, which is not affiliated with a street gang or group. He was not prepared to be interviewed over the phone out of fear that he would get “locked up.”
He targets 42nd and 43rd Street, he said, since he knows people who live there.
However, in the messages, he said that he is thinking about easing up on 43rd Street.
“I’m done with 43rd street to many yuppies complaining about sunnyside. But they wasn”t here when it was a bad neighorhood.”
However, his work has annoyed many, including Sunnyside Shines.
“It is frustrating that one individual is so intent on destroying small business property in our neighborhood,” said Rachel Thieme, the director of Sunnyside Shines.
“We’re very much aware of the graffiti situation in Sunnyside right now, and are coordinating closely with Council Member Van Bramer’s office and the 108th Precinct, as well as our graffiti removal vendor to ensure graffiti is removed as soon as possible.”
The freezing weather, however, has slowed down efforts to clean up the graffiti, Thieme said.
Nevertheless, when Sunnyside Shines was able to clean off the graffiti outside Café Bene (42nd and Queens Blvd) recently, Esayebeare Bereal struck back again days later.
Esayebeare Bereal argues that he is capable of doing quality artwork but is fearful of getting caught by the police and said that paint is expensive.
Most don’t appreciate his graffiti in any form– viewing it as nothing more than vandalism.
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Transcript of Facebook chat by sunnysidepost
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43rd Street and Queens Boulevard. Former Dime Bank (Sunnyside Post)
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43rd and Queens Blvd (former Dime Bank)
Sunnyside Shines cleaned his tag and then shortly after it reappeared (42nd Queens Blvd)
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42nd Street (near Queens Blvd)
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43rd Street and 43rd Avenue
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Barnett Ave., 43rd Street
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44th Street (by Queens Blvd)
Possible tag
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43rd (near Skillman Ave.)
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43rd Avenue (between 42nd and 43rd Street)
Facebook Page
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45 Comments
What if you saw him? Is there a detective working on this?
It could be a female doing it, not male.
I also want to point out that the wall along the Phoenix condo, along with half of Sunnyside South/Woodside also has a recent and very active tagger. He does some stupid face.
While I hate to lay blame on the landlords, there does come a point where this is their responsibilty too. There are walls that have had graffiti up (like along doorways) for YEARS.
Instead of crying about this kid spray painting little squiggles. Why don’t store owners care more to paint their gates and walls a decent color and then use a AntiGraffiti coating which doesn’t allow spray or aerosol to adhere to the walls. If store owners and landlords can’t wisen up and spend the few extra bucks, it’s a lesson learned. I’m a property owner on Skillman Ave and have no issues with graffiti. I suggest everyone stops crying about it and do something yourselfs. They’re all neigherborhood community services to help clean the neighborhood.
The only thing dumber than this assholes tag is his Facebook name.
This dude sounds like a real dumbass, he can barely spell or construct a grammatically correct sentence. Isn’t it possible to track his IP address through the Facebook messages he has exchanged.
Sunnyside shines should not pay for removal of tags on chains like cafe bene. They can afford it. Stick to small businesses.
I’m sure the operator is a small business owner and not a corporate bigshot. He’s probably hurting from this as well.
What a total little XXnt! I hope a spray can explodes in his hand. This is not art, it’s garbage. Who cares if you grew up here. That actually makes the defacing of your own neighborhood worse, what a retard.
Sunnyside post is playing right into this guy’s game. You’re publicizing him, this is what he wants. Don’t give him the attention.
Tell Carmine to gather up a crew.. barricade from 39 to 48 street…Get the festival lights were gonna throw a feast there is gonna be no place sbr can hide….well get you s b r well get you sbr
Yes sunnysidepost why would you post this info before police have checked this matter for a story you just could not wait a few days maybe the police would have been able to fish this guy out with sting you messed up do you really care about sunnyside or just your online paper
CONGRATULATIONS SUNNYSIDE POST.
YOU JUST MADE HIM FAMOUS.
This guys fb friends are a bunch of lowlifes from Sunnyside in their 30’s still living with their parents. You know the type that still walk around the neighborhood smoking their joints because they can’t afford a place of their own.
When this jerk is finally caught, his actions should be brought to the attention of his land lord and the community could request eviction or renewal denial due to vandalism. We had a number of such cases back in the late 80’s.
That’s actually sorta genius.
wanna be artist spending what little dough he makes on silly spray cans instead of funding his future. young man as a fellow neighbor may I suggest you find a new skill before you wake up one day broke, uneducated and destitute competing with Mr. Chaaanngee for paltry handouts. “keeping it real” haha this ain’t the 80’s no more my friend totally different world now. surely you’ve got other skills if not get some fast while you can. wishing you the best
Why are showcasing this crap and endulging someone who obviously has a low IQ and some type of inferiority complex? I have been in Sunnyside from the 1950’s and it was never bad.
What a coward.
probably 12 years old
Ok…so, SBR, make some quality art, build a portfolio and bring it to business owners. Perhaps you can make a nice penny off of window artistry instead of making the neighborhood look ridiculous with big bubble letters…..
Punk just needs a good old fashioned beating.
Hahah! He’s not in high school, but is an adult with a job?!
He doesn’t even have graffiti skills.
What a loser. Keepin it real, son, really stoopid.
It’s a disgrace. Also I noticed he took down his facebook, obviously a chickenshit thug wannabe spraying his nonsense all over the place like a cat. He needs to be found and made an example of by making him clean up his mess. It’s easy to find him by going after his friends on FB, they’ll hand him over in a second.
I have always felt that the punishment for tagging should be having the tag you threw up tattooed on your face. People would think really long and hard about what they tagged.
No talent, punk ass little bitch.
“I’m done with 43rd street to many yuppies complaining about sunnyside. But they wasn”t here when it was a bad neighorhood.”
Oh please, yuppies or not this was never a “bad neighborhood.”
So, gentrification will drive him to stop? Interesting…
I was just saying I think that’s why these idiot kids tag our neighborhood. Like they want to pretend its 1979 again and they are “hard”. If this jerk thinks Sunnyside was EVER a “bad” neighborhood, he’s even more of an idiot than his grammatically incorrect posts show him to be. What a low class ignorant fool.
I have video, but don’t know if the police is interested. I had a video of another incident and sent an email with attached pictures to the 108 and got no response, so why waste my time.
need to keep calling the precinct make a pest of yourself and insist to speak to captain if necessary. I’m told he’s a really nice guy
Call JVB, one of the kids in the office will get your video to the right people. I had a similar problem a while back and it as resolved through his office. Let’s get this jerk.
Please send video to sunnysidepost@gmail.com
hahahaha I agree with the above comment. This is nothing! It’s a nuisance but nothing like it used to be. What a pointless report. Why don’t you write an article about all the traffic cops driving around Sunnyside running red lights while chatting or texting on their cellphones? You know, something that actually endangers the lives of Sunnyside residents? Or how they need to clean house at CB2, there’s a story!
My heart goes out to the owners of these establishments. Graffiti removal is costly and time consuming. If this person wants to make a statement then maybe he should have tagged “Screw Broadway Stages” on the center cinema marquee and on every other empty store front.
do these places have cameras?
They still tag? What is this? The 80s?
And they can’t identify and arrest this guy???
yes waste our tax dollars and feed more money to the prison industrial complex because some idiot wrote SBR on a wall. Identify him and have him clean up his own handy work, and then force him to become a permanent member of the graffiti removal team. If he doesn’t comply, then charge him and have him arrested. That’s a better idea.
Calm down!
Who said anything about feeding him?
This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. There is absolutely nothing ‘beautiful’ about his spray paint squiggles. This kid needs to be locked up, as it looks like he’s got nothing better to do and won’t be wisening up any time soon.
You think this is bad? You shoulda seen this neighborhood In the 90s.
I think there should be some sort of reward offered, and a punishment that is both public and impressive.
This poser thinks he’s saber. what a fake fool
Sunnyside Post reporter, look up famous graffiti art on goodle, this loser is copying (as i’m sure this is not a homage to) LA based street artist Saber.
this toy should not be getting any further press , even sunnyside post coverage is enough to encourage him to tag more. delete this post and lets hope some undercovers put this TOY on trash pickup duty.