Greenpoint man on mission to litter nabe with stickers of dogs

New York Post

a day ago

Stickers of smiling local dogs have been mysteriously blanketing Greenpoint this summer — as part of a guerrilla-style campaign to inject happiness into the canine-obsessed nabe.
The project is spearheaded by Nick Padilla, a seventh-grade math teacher who shares a passion for pups that is something of a requirement for living in the trendy corner of Brooklyn.
6 Math teacher Nick Padilla has been leaving stickers of dogs throughout Greenpoint.
Stefano Giovannini
'People really love their dogs here. When you go into bars and people start talking about their dogs, they just light up and go and go and go,' Padilla told The Post.
'Dogs are the greatest thing in the world.'
Padilla, 37, said some of the first stickers he plastered around town were of his own four-legged best friend, Hobbes.
The teacher said he was forced to put down his tiny mutt — who was lovingly referred to as 'the Chief' because his bossy attitude greatly outweighed his small frame — in April after a series of health problems.
He said the stickers serve as a small reminder of his beloved dog — and that he hopes other canine lovers can experience the same burst of happiness when they see their pets on them, too.
6 Neighbors are encouraged to submit photos of their pups to an anonymous email, and Padilla then turns them into stickers.
Stefano Giovannini
'I feel like I would like it if I just got to go somewhere else and see my dog,' the teacher said. 'That's a really cool feeling because you get to see your dog in the wild. It's a stupid thing, but it's exciting.'
He said he spent his July procuring pictures of his neighbor's dogs through an anonymous email, then printed them out and began stealthily slapping them across any sign, trash can and even bar bathrooms.
So far, he's stuck around 100 mini hounds throughout the Brooklyn neighborhood as part of a project he says is driven purely through communal love of dogs and in hopes of spreading smiles.
6 'When you go into bars and people start talking about their dogs, they just light up and go and go and go,' Padilla said.
Stefano Giovannini
6 Each batch of 100 stickers costs about $94 to print.
Stefano Giovannini
6 Placing stickers on public property is a crime that comes with a $75 ticket.
Stefano Giovannini
The area is ripe for the project, the dog-lover said.
'You go to bars, and so many bars that let dogs in. My grocery store has dog treats,' Padilla said.
6 'Dogs are the greatest thing in the world,' Padilla said.
Stefano Giovannini
Although Padilla is not necessarily keeping his identity a secret, there have been no name exchanges between him and the pet lovers sending in pictures of the pooches.
'It's about the dogs,' he said.
The Big Apple educator recently launched an Instagram for the project that features all the sticky hounds, as well as a list of their likes and dislikes.
His ultimate goal is to blanket the area until each local pooch gains celebrity status and gets recognized on their daily strolls through McCarren Park.
Each batch of 100 stickers costs around $94 — which is a little higher than the $75 price of a graffiti violation for slapping the doggie images on public property.
But Padilla says the price is worth the happiness he aims to spread.
'I really, really love this neighborhood so much. It means a lot to me. I've been here for 14 years, and I don't have any plans on leaving, so if this is something, a little thing, I can do to make neighbors happier, that's really fun,' he said.