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Vernon/Jackson Post-It Wall continues to grow, as positive messages resonate

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Nov. 30, 2016 By Hannah Wulkan

Despite a bumpy start, a wall full of Post-Its with positive messages continues to grow in the Vernon-Jackson subway station.

Several Long Island City residents kicked off a “Post-It-tivity wall” on Monday, November 21, similar to the one in Union Station, but were quickly disappointed when it was taken down by an MTA cleaning crew later that night.

Now it is back up, with assurances from the MTA that it will not be destroyed again, and visitors to the station are posting encouraging messages to the community as they pass by.

“One of the reasons I thought it would be nice is to have it as people exit the subway station to come in to LIC and see that our community is inclusive and accepting and tolerant,” said organizer Kate Revill about why she started the wall.

When Revill first set out to create the Post-It wall, she made sure to get permission from and notify the MTA, the 108^th Precinct and Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer’s office to ensure it was not taken down.

However she attributes the destruction of the first Post-It wall to a misunderstanding. She explained that when organizers of the wall reached out to the MTA, they were directed to the MTA police, which was not the correct branch to get permission from, though they did not know that at the time.

Since the MTA officers who would normally give permission had no notice of the Post-It wall, they had it taken down.

Revill and other community members worked to clear up the miscommunication, and now have the correct approval for the project.

Some of the most avid advocates for the wall are the local Girl Scout troupes, which put the first Post-Its up on the wall.

“Especially the older troupes are well aware of news and politics, and are aware of the changes in the world,” said local Girl Scout leader Bea Murphy, who also helped get the wall back up and running after it was taken down.

“An ongoing Girl Scout message is that we want to help ourselves, our friends and family, our community and our world,” she added. “It is participation in things like this that have to do with civic pride, and allow us to say that LIC stands for positivity and helps the girls have pride in their community.”

The Post-It wall continues to grow and has begun to spill on to other walls, and Revill said that there is no end in sight for the project. She said that the MTA gave them permission to have the wall “for a certain period of time,” but did not specify how long that period would run, and she hopes to see it continue to grow.