It’s a crappy way to treat a 9/11 memorial.
Pooping pigeons have turned a beloved, community-painted 9/11 mural in Queens into a revolting eyesore – despite roughly $400,000 in taxpayer dollars already spent to supposedly prevent the doo-doo desecration, disgusted civic leaders told The Post.
Hundreds of well-fed pigeons roost on the beams below the Belt Parkway’s 84th Street overpass in Howard Beach — bombarding the mural with so much poop that volunteers are forced to power wash it nearly every day.
“I think it’s despicable,” said Phyllis Inserillo, co-president of the Howard Beach Lindenwood Civic Association.
“There were 2,977 people murdered in an act of terrorism … on our soil and, we have state [officials] who don’t seem to care.”
On Wednesday, dozens of birds sat on the overpass’ metal beams.
Others lined up on the graveled pathway near the mural, which was itself covered in poop, bird feathers and nesting material.
At least two dead pigeons lay several feet from the artwork, which shows the Manhattan skyline before 9/11 and 20 years later, and features 2,977 tribute stars for each victim killed by the terrorists and the caption “Howard Beach Will Never Forget.”
And even though retired Army vet and local activist Eddie Earl said he cleaned and power washed the mural a day before, poo was already covering half of it.
“You can power wash in the morning and by the afternoon the poop is back,” fumed Barbara McNamara, the civic association’s other co-president. “It’s doesn’t end!”
Since the mural was unveiled nearly three years ago on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the state Department of Transportation has spent a small fortune trying to keep the pigeons away.
The agency, which owns the overpass and the mural’s wall, installed anti-bird spikes, slippery slides and other alleged deterrents along the metal beams, all in vain.
Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) called the remedies a “waste of taxpayer dollars,” insisting a better remedy is installing construction netting or another type of covering below the overpass.
The state DOT has repeatedly rejected the idea of covering the beams with netting or planks, saying it would impede maintenance and make safety inspections of the underpass difficult.
Spokesman Joe Morrissey told The Post that although the mural was painted “without our consent” the DOT has taken other “extensive measures” to “preserve” it and keep pigeons away, including repeated washings where the birds like to nest.
“NYSDOT will continue to work cooperatively with community stakeholders to seek out viable solutions to this matter, and we urge our partners in government – including the City of New York, which controls the street and adjacent bike path – to do the same,” he said.
In 2021, the civic association raised nearly $5,000 and commissioned local artists to paint the mural along a wall that had long been covered in graffiti.
Pigeon poop was already an issue at the site for more than a decade, but the association was “promised” by state elected officials that it would be remedied after the mural went up, insisted Inserillo.
“We’re upset,” she said.
“This is a place that so many people visit and pass every day, … and it’s something everyone in the neighborhood cherishes, so it shouldn’t be desecrated by pigeon feces.”
The artwork is part of a larger neighborhood tribute to 9/11 victims that also includes a nearby “Survivor Tree” grown from seedlings harvested from a Callery pear tree miraculously rescued from Ground Zero.
