Subway tunnels repainted in Manhattan's Washington Heights

This tunnel at the 191st Street station on the number one train line gets a lot of visitors and subway riders. It's also a shortcut connecting communities in Washington Heights. The walk is kind of long and the walls are imposing. Yeah, a perfect canvas to see art up on the wall is like so cool. Daniel Bonilla says he jumped at the chance to paint murals in the tunnel. You touch the whole wall. You did you did great. He was chosen among several other local artists by the city's Department of Transportation. For this special project, it gives them an opportunity to kind of be part of something. The tunnel has some history in the 1980s. It was drab, dirty and poorly lit until it was cleaned up by the city. Through the years, graffiti artist added to the walls here, but in 2022 the city decided to paint over their drawings, sparking backlash from members of the community who claimed it was an erasure of their culture. But Deal T Commissioner Adanis Rodriguez explained the paint job was needed because of wear and tear because of the level of vandalism that happened from 2015 to 2022, we decided to restart the process. The artist drawing inspiration from the community that lives here, most of which have ties to the Dominican Republic. One wall depicts green plantains or plantains, and the other contains or platanos, a staple of Dominican cuisine. The artist had help from the Dykeman Run Club and other volunteers. I think it's really beautiful that this mural project is in full force and it's going to be reinstituted. I just hope that one it's maintained. The second thing she suggested are resources to preserve this tunnel. That's coming in a couple of years. The city has allocated $30 million to renovate this tunnel.