The sight of graffiti, litter and a downed telephone pole at the Kennedy Boulevard entrance to Bayonne has bothered Corrado DeVincenzo for months.

So the 25-year-old lifelong Bayonne resident, who lives on 54th Street near the rundown, neglected entrance, decided to speak up Wednesday night at a City Council meeting, asking council members if something could be done.

"This is the first impression of our city, so I feel that it's important that we maintain (this entrance)," DeVincenzo said.

He went on to describe to council members the uncut grass in the area, as well as a faded McDonald's advertisement on a train trestle.

In regard to the graffiti underneath a New Jersey Turnpike overpass, DeVincenzo made a suggestion: rather than erase the graffiti only to have it replaced by new graffiti soon afterward, why not embrace the graffiti in a controlled way?

"You (can) allow people to come and do graffiti in a certain area in our town. By doing that, they won't do it anywhere else," he said, after citing examples of other cities that have addressed the issue.

DeVincenzo soon found out that finding the party responsible for fixing the mess isn't all that easy.

City officials told DeVincenzo that Kennedy Boulevard is a county road, and that the county and possibly other agencies were responsible for the area's upkeep. They said they would do what they could, as well as notify the county.

"We'll be telling the county," City Council President Sharon Nadrowski said at one point.

"Thank you for bringing that problem to us, and thank you for bringing a solution to that problem," Councilman At-large Juan Perez said at the end of the meeting, stressing the constructive nature of DeVincenzo's complaint.

Shortly after the council meeting, DeVincenzo said he was satisfied by the council members' responses, as long as they held accountable whichever agency is responsible for cleaning up the area.

Hudson County spokesman Jim Kennelly said today that New Jersey Turnpike Authority is responsible for cleaning the area, not the county.

Turnpike Authority spokesman Tom Feeney confirmed yesterday that it is the responsibility of the authority to clean graffiti from the piers beneath the Turnpike extension.

Sent a map of the area earlier today to ascertain whether the property in question belonged to the Turnpike Authority, Feeney did not immediately respond for comment.

Jonathan Lin may be reached at jlin@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlin_jj. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.