NYTimes posts a used-to-love letter to 5Ptz

The New York Times posted what I'm coining a "I used-to-love letter" to the subject of the erased murals on the 5ptz building in its Friday, Dec 20th, 2013 online edition.

I noticed a small headline and link reading "A Beginning For 5Ptz not the End" whose title conceit inspired me to read it since last word and image from 5ptz, the iconic mural and graffiti coated building in Long Island City, Queens, was of all it's art, tags and massive murals, some of it a decade old had been destroyed in gut wrenching fashion and the middle of the night by the land owner and developer.

Immediately after I read the letter which was posted in the City Diary section and who's message seems to be telling us, to borrow a movie line,"nothing to see here move along" I wondered if any vested real estate interests help blow this bit of prose up the grey lady's skirt. And if so how much?

For you I present my interpretation of the letter, the article to the actual is at the end.

Dear Diary,

I used to love, a boy, he was cool, an artist, with a cool name. I'm giving you the superficial details because I have a word count to watch and there really wasnt much more depth to my interest than that.

It wasn't my fault but I missed out on the New York of lore, fortunately thanks to my crush-love I was granted access into a sliver of that world and a chance to sight-see. It was great. My crush, wrote me in small letters into a world of characters, among them; self-proclaiming types, and a  disappearing/reappearing tabby cat(Cheshire, duh). Finally I surfed on the edge of inclusion. From the roof, I watched the sunset on this world and it's magic.

Long after I got a fb message from my crush-love (who by now I realized, I didn't really love anyway) he showed me the art work of that world was taken away. Interestingly he didn't care much.  Since he's of that world and willing to see the developer's middle-night white out of all it's artwork (including my non-crush's artwork (ephemeral, duh)) I know what happened doesn't matter, and I clearly should not see it as a big deal that the art work was destroyed without any attempt to save even one mural.

My erased-crush thinks it's like a blank canvas for new art to grow, like say the uniqueness of the edifying edifices of luxury high-rise condos. My once-crush is giving me permission not to see the developer's actions as an insult, an example of the excessive greed and ego that has dictated much of the gentrification of the city in the last ten years, or a symbol of petty vengeance by a sore winner/developer with a desire to take an eraser to a world renown aspect of New York City.

So like an online fling we should just move along and be happy there still pictures somewhere on the internet to look at.

P.S.: No word on the tabby, I'm sure he'll pop up somewhere else, maybe he'll just appear in one of the new luxury condos because that's how magic works.

Love
Alice

Liked,
Kristen

The City Roll Diary article refered to can be found here: 
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/20/a-beginning-for-5pointz-not-the-end  

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
"I don't much care where –"
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go.”
― Lewis Carroll

Bike Clot!!

Not my best title but I havent thought up poetry for this post. It's a busy 1st summer weekend in NYC, (Mermaid Parade tomorrow!) so before I over think, I figured I'd write and here it is.

The Bike Lanes need drano, for right now my peoples, they are clogged.

I'm stunned, sincerely. As one who is pro most things bicycle let me tell you I was shocked dismayed astounded and more. A metaphorical snake couldnt even get through because people were maintaining speeds and spacing so the type of maniacal darting and weaving I'd be likely to do through traffic was only going to get some other cyclist hurt so I resigned to be down with the slow-go crowd.

Before anyone anti-bike gets too excited, it's not like this everywhere, in Brooklyn for example I still get to cruise like Elaine after Kramer widened the highway, but in Manhattan it's like being trout in the Pacific Northwest (no pun intended, granted I can't speak for KimYe). here is one detail the surprised me most, as I rode down 2nd Avenue midweek, midday, and crawled through BIKE TRAFFIC, (BIKE!!) it wasn't at all deadly or safety concern inducing, because everyone in the lane, citibike or not (and the citibikes were out numbered 4 - 1 that day) was riding as slow as cabbies in traffic court.

A majority of the bike riders I encountered on the city bike lanes was slow, and riding like they were on a country path someplace bucolic where the need to make space for your fellow rider doesn't matter because there is no other country rider.

In some ways it was beautiful. People traversing, obviously enjoying, slowly savoring the city, with zero harmful emissions, save the rage steam pouring out my ears as I wished wistfully that I could get off that damned path and take my chances with the cabbies. Sure some of the cabbies are driving with their cousin's license, but they're driving fast!

So yeah on the 1st day of Summer let's all bask in the sun, bake away troubles and have a great time but please pull your big blissfully unaware ass over and let people pass. There's ya poetry.

Bike safe NY.

Brooklyn: It Ain't Where Ya From It's Where Ya At.

"It's funny how money changes situations."

That line (which is opening lyric of Lauren Hill's) doesnt really express what I meant, what I'm thinking is it's funny when diverse sides of issues get broken down into their extreme aspects and then those extreme aspects are positioned against each other.

"Can it be that it was all so simple?"

Brooklyn was simple (wasn't it) just twenty years ago. It was the sample place it is now, rich with history (the Revolutionary War and Brooklyn Dodgers had still happened here, despite it being the Brooklyn of twenty years ago) but back then Brooklyn was so simple to peg into a whole.

It was full of beauty, Brownstones and Botanic Gardens, and danger; Brownsville shootings, beef fed beat-downs and random robberies at best. Taxi's? No, never. Had no restaurants. This was of course a judgement made by the Manhattan minded and dwelling. So did we have restaurants? By those standards nope. The restaurants in the borough went largely unseen and those visible from across the river (River Cafe & Peter Luger's) didn't belong to the Brooklyn geography they occupied (hell River Cafe is ON the river) a Micheline starred restaurant may brush up against Brooklyn suggestively in those days, but occupy, heavens no. If you wanted cheap rent and long commute and the implied danger from topics listed above, you went to Brooklyn. Once in a while a concert grew in Brooklyn that non-Brooklynites and some locals would be needlessly be nervous about attending. There was a college, somewhere, that was decent for art, or music, or science or occasionally an NCAA Basketball bracket. Which is how people I spoke with described Pratt, Brooklyn College & LIU respectively.

Basically Brooklyn was simply thought of back in the day. It wasn't a simple place it just conjured simple impressions, which lead usually to simplistic and short conversations.

Today much real estate, printed, virtual, and physical is given to the great discussion of Brooklyn, and what that means, should me, did mean, will mean. Damn B your therapy bills must be crazy.

New York Magazine ran this article with the cover copy "Brooklyn is Finished" written by Mark Jacobson back in Autumn and I wanted to tack on my comments to the piece, in this blog. It didnt bother me that I never got to it because the article in my opinion didn't need my two cents or anything it stands in my mind as the best expression of what Brooklyn was through differing eras, what it became, where it is now, and what stays unique and constent about this place.

A friend sent me this article "The Ins and Outs" written (I presume) by some of the many talented and encamped J-School grads that are easy to find around Frankin Avenue's Crown Heights these days. It's a good micro focused piece reflecting the dynamic causality and impact of large scale gentrification in the short period of time that has passed. It's very good too.

And on Friday the Grey Lady herself dedicated much space and writing talent to this piece, titled Brooklyn, the Remix: A Hip Hop Tour. Also a great piece which seems in part inspired by this art piece (in which a variant of street artist, fabricated faux street signs with classic location specific hiphop lyrics written on then, and then the artists mounts those street signs on existing poles in the name-checked neighborhoods and streets. Many of those streets have since dramatically changed often for the lifestyle betterment of some, so there is an added contrast & impact of the installations.

Personally I want to imagine a creative coup within the Grey Lady led by writers who live in the borough and had grown weary of under-informed pieces written about Brooklyn, published in her name, I'm looking at you Real Estate section. But I digress.

The New York Times piece covers various Hip Hop landmarks and emotional sign posts of their own,  around the Borough. There's mention of old Sarah J. Hale nicknamed Sarah Jail because of it's often less than civil students, which is on a stretch of dean street that is now tony and gentrified. There's a reference to the Plaza movie theater on Flatbush near Park Place which became the Plaza Twin, then the Pavilion and finally now, an American Apparel store. In the article the person who invokes the movie theater reflects with irony that he say "Do The Right Thing" in that spot.

It's a testiment to the lightning rod that Franklin Avenue has become, the 180º turn around it's undergoinf that all three pieces make references to Franklin in the case of the New York Mag article it was where the writter's grandmother lived some 50 years before code words like "Craft Beer" & "Artisanal" became synonymous with Franklin.

I was sucked into the online New York Times comments following their article. One comment by a reader going by "IRS" seemed to whine a lament, writing:

I am getting sick of articles like these. I understand the nostalgia with how life "used to be" in NYC. My neighborhood is the epicenter for some of my favorite hip hop. I get it. What people fail to acknowledge is that their NYC of the past is just a blip on the overall story of the city as a whole. This city has changed EVERY DAY, since its inception hundreds of years ago, and that is what makes it so beautiful.

People need to stop complaining and holding on to some rosy memory of what NYC "was," because "it" isn't coming back... Furthermore, those same people clamoring for the city to go back to its "gritty" days, that so many yearn for, are the same people who will complain the most when all of the street crime returns right along with it and they're afraid to walk down the street without looking over their shoulders.

It is time NYC to get over it and move on. Our city will be better for it.

I find that comment interesting because I hear it alot. It's one thing to say the past does and doesn't matter, but I'm impressed by the amount of residents ( I presume them to be new) who think it's time for people to stop having reminiseces. What an intersting suggestion, thought policing.

The conversation of this moment's Brooklyn is only halfway finished. Obviously the borough, city, country and much of the world will go on changing whether we like it, want it or not.

I think the impetus for all the dialogue is most eras take longer to switch and show visible signs. I myself often write that all these changes clearly started back in the late 70's right after the smoke cleared from the looting aftermath of 77's blackout. But the speed of change in Brooklyn, has been blinding and that's why we can't stop talking about it, besides all the other details that go into the conversation. The way a magic trick or lightning is fascinating and elicits fascinated analysis is partially because in the blink of an eye it's so dynamically different. And in Brooklyn the focus and who different groups are impacted is so extreme. There really was no breather before or after the crack era. Brooklyn was not much different that the rest of the city in 1970. By 1980 there were more extreme differences. By 1990 more so and by 2003 you could wallpaper your studio apartment with articles proclaiming Brooklyn the new Manhattan. By 2013 on some streets it is.

It's the change, its the speed, it's the cultural and socially effected and disconnected.

Basically, no one cared enough to think as deeply and consistently as people do now about Brooklyn. But I thought the NY Mag article and the NY Times HipHop remix article does a great job of pointing out a key detail of the neverending Brooklyn discussion. It's not that we want to go back to the gritty days specifically, its not that we want to close the artisanal cheese shops, its that we dont want to be resigned to the past, and a negative one at that, while we continue to live here. We who were in Brooklyn lived and exprienced like everyone else and in some cases we mined and polished social and culutral riches that are exploited and enjoyed today, in our borough and we wonder if the way we were generally ignored back then isn't happening now.

Nobody wants to be forgotten or ignored, especially not while we're still here.

And now I found what I was tying to say through the poetry often born of these Brooklyn streets.

Planet, Earth, was my place of birth
Born to be the soul controller of the universe
Besides the part of the map I hit first
Any environment I can adapt when it gets worst
The rough gets goin, the goin gets rough
When I start flowin, the mic might bust
The next state I shake from the power I generate
People in Cali used to think it was earthquakes
Cause times was hard on the Boulevard
So I vote God and never get scarred and gauled
But it seems like I'm locked in hell
Lookin over the edge but the R never fell
A trip to slip cause my Nikes got grip
Stand on my own two feet and come equipped
Any stage I'm seen on, or mic I fiend on
I stand alone and need nothin to lean on
Going for self with a long way to go
So much to say but I still flow slow
I come correct and I won't look back
Cause it ain't where you're from, it's where you're at
Even the (ghetto)

-Rakim

New York Keeps Running and that's a good thing.

(Wrote this on Friday 11/ 2, had some technical issues preventing me from publishing (nothing tragic) but I stand by this even and especially in light of the type of criticism the Marathon received and it's cancellation)

Friday, Nov 2nd:


Cancelling the Marathon doesn't remove water from people's homes, lift trees off of houses and cars, repair roofs, return electricity to the hundreds of thousands without it. Deliver vital medicine to those with chronic illness or sadly raise the dead. Beat cops do not conduct disaster relief missions. Currently relief efforts are underway it's a shame that they were not there sooner, just as its

equally a shame that people who didn't take two days of evacuation orders and open shelters and near by higher ground were not willing or able to use them. Should evacuation failures be investigated and improved, definitely. Cancelling the Marathon doesn't do that. Should available resources from the marathon go to survivors I think so, should the proceeds of the marathon go to survivors, i think a chunk should at least.

Should people get booted from hotels for marathoners? Hell no! Give the runners trailers or something, they're only here for a few hours, but does cancelling an event that arguably focuses the city and to a degree the nation's focus on New York at a time when many New Yorkers need all the attention and assistance they can get, improve conditions for hurricane survivors? I don't think so.

 

The Marathon should be used to increase attention and aid to people in need, so regular people who've focused their lives on this event can be given the opportunity to run for something bigger than personal achievement. Let's make that happen. The Marathon has run through Harlem, Spanish Harlem & the South Bronx for 40 years and in that time child mortality rates in those areas have rivaled 3rd world nations. Economic, educational and environmental suffering has existed in those marathon run through neighborhoods for years as well. Yet there's never been a huge outcry that the marathon is being run while people suffer. Quitting the marathon doesn't miraculously fix things.

When we fall we get up. When people fall we think it's right to give compassion and we hope that compassion will be there if we ever need. I think people should be helped when they fall. all people. but when we fall we don't make progress but asking the people standing to lay down.

My two cents.

 

(As I was writing this word came in that the Marathon would be cancelled, the following then came to mind)

I blame Bloomberg but not for a failed response to the Hurricane. Personally I think people need to go back and look at the days preceding that terrible storm and look at what and how Bloomberg did to prepare New Yorkers of the disaster to come. There were two days of warnings that people in the flood zone (Evacuation Zone A) were in danger and needed to leave to be safe.

 

Shelters were opened. Evacuation instructions were given. Warnings were made.

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121029/new-york-city/where-find-shelter-closest-you

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20121028/new-york-city/heres-what-do-if-you-live-hurricane-evacuation-zone

So what do I blame Bloomberg for? His style of leader ship for more than a decade, which in and of itself is part of the problem. He broke the rules, bending them from illegal to legal for his own desire, and said it was for our betterment. He's made dozens of changes to our city, often against public opinion and ignored most grievances saying essentially it's for our betterment.

I blame Bloomberg for squandering his clout and the goodwill of New Yorkers such that anything he does is now likely to be greeted with scorn. A Mayor, a leader, who engendered good will of his constituents could have presented an event like the Marathon as a way for New Yorkers and the world (by way of the international cast of competitors) to give to the hurricane survivors. 

As of last weekend most people in outside of Staten Island wouldn't know where or how to get to Staten Island right after the disaster, or who to help. People didn't know how to reach out and some New Yorkers didn't have a direct connection to the tragedy in Staten Island, Breezy Point, Rockaway and the Lower East Side but you know what does reach Millions of New Yorkers? The marathon, which is why i feel it could'a been and could still be a way for people to help. 

 

On the street level it almost all volunteers, runners could have been designated as representatives for stricken communities. rest stops could have been set up as donation points, the proceeds or at least a sizable chunk could have been donated to the disaster relief.

The NFL continued with the Giant's game in New Jersey less than 20 miles from the destruction zones. They used the game to honor 1st responders, donate to the survivors and encourage more donations and awareness.

A better leader who would have been able to show and connect us to the ties that bind us as people and New Yorkers instead of stubbornly plowing ahead as our communities frayed.

Con Ed's storm plan went out with a bang. (Yesterday's planning won't stop tomorrow's storms)

Technically speaking, this time, you can't fault Con Ed.

The electrical utility planned for Hurricane Sandy and the storm surge of water it would cause. They preemptively cut power to areas of the city whose power lines were likely to be flooded (as detailed in this article from Bloomberg Businessweek News) and they had previous experience with extreme storms most recently last year's Hurricane Irene which cause a 9.5 foot increase in the water level near the substation. The utility was prepared to stop a storm surge of 12 feet reasonable thinking when considering that since 1821 the highest storm surge had been 12.5 feet.

But we clearly live in a climate changed world. What was isn't what's likely to be. The storm surge on Monday night rose to 14 feet.

When flood waters (not very deep once it crested and flooded through the streets, but deep enough) made it through the grates and into the 14th Street Con Ed Sub-Station that's when all the planning went down the drain.

The Bloomberg article said it best,

"It's like what happened at the Fukushima nuclear complex in Japan last year — without the radiation."

As you should expect as a reader of this blog, I have a personal story about that sub-station; a relative worked there back in the day and took me by once when he had to drop off some gear. I won't wax on as I usually do, although there is a great story about cats and birds to be told, the point is there is an unbelievable amount of infrastructure on that site. Volatile vital energy infrastructure. That we need to live on in this city. Ask anybody who lives on a respirator or the much less inconvenienced but still frustrated people hanging on street corners in midtown trying to get a cell signal.

I hope the Governor's remarks about updating New York City's ability to withstand the climate we live in today and tomorrow is sincere. And most important that we the people get why we need to pay up to improve and prevent the situations.

Btw if you haven't seen it here comes the boom(starting from 22 seconds in), from the 14th Street Con Ed Sub-Station:


If you want to know why shutting power down is the best bet and why electrical power stations go boom when exposed to salt water (and you couldn't be bothered to read the linked article, here's your crib-note from the same article)

"When live electric equipment is inundated with salt water, electricity escapes every which way, sending sparks flying and damaging equipment. "You see a huge blast just from the short circuit," says Arshad Mansoor, senior vice president for research and development at the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry-funded research group."

So my two cents. Lets look at the cost of repairing the damage from this storm, plus the lost wages and tax revenue, and productivity (and lives directly attributable if any) project that forward based on the frequency and intensity of storms in the last 10-20 years and see if that comes close to what it cost to make long term fixes. One way or another we're gonna pay for this better it be less now vs more later.

Life's not so easy living Breezy - Hurricane Sandy brings hard facts home for Rockaway community, New York City in general

Breezy Point, Queens took a helluva a beating from Hurricane Sandy.

The winds turned bits of home and property into shrapnel, the storm surge brought floods in from the ocean overlapping the low land, inundating homes, drowning possessions and of course as has been widely reported causing fires to erupt surrounded by impassable roads, which sweep through the community on the Rockaway peninsula disintegrating over 100 homes and leaving smoldering foundations in it's wake.

Fortunately so far, there haven't been reports of any deaths as a result.

Most New Yorkers would have an easier time finding Staten Island than Breezy Point, (go ahead ask ten random New Yorkers to locate Staten Island on a map) Being the geek that I tend to be I knew where Breezy Point is but besides being gobsmacked by the fire and destruction I was way stunned at how many people live there. It's not what I remembered.

On summer days in the late 80's I'd ride my bike about 3 miles from the Flatlands/Mill Basin (yeh Mill Basin) area of Brooklyn where my grandmother's home is down along the Flatbush Avenue extension past the former Red Lobster, past the Toys R Us (usually past, there were frequent pit-stops at Toys R Us, hey I was a kid) out to Jamaica Bay. I'd then make what I still think is the most terrifying bike ride over a bridge in New York City, over the Gil Hodges Bridge stretching over the Jamaica Bay inlet between Brooklyn and Rockaway's slender strip of land.

Almost directly on the other side of the bridge is Jacob Riis Beach, in my opinion the best of the city beaches. The waves are higher at Riis Beach. I'd argue it's water and sand is cleaner than most of the city's beaches. It faces the ocean straight away unlike Coney Island which to an extent is behind Rockaway's eastern most point and that point is Breezy. Which is why I know of Breezy Point.

The first time I went, I did so simply because its words were otherwise unremarkably printed on the outskirts of the 1980's NYC Subway map. It seemed so distant. The map showed no landmarks. Not the ambiguous green geometry of a possible park or even a line to indicate roads. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to stand there, at the point drawn on the map, noteworthy enough at least to have been named but possibly consisting of nothing else. Being the literal minded kid I was, hoped for a pointed piece of sand to stand on, water on either side of me and what else, a breeze, at least.

Usually though, the summer heat and the 3 mile bike ride narrowed my focus and desire to nothing more than a quick splash in the accessible surf. It took many trips before I realized my Breezy Point investigation had never been conducted, so one day I made it the primary goal. Turning right off the bridge instead of my usual left toward Riis, I found a quaint street, a small fire station, and after a short ride not much else. The road as I recall stopped after less than a mile and became a sandy path. Curious as I was, a random sandy path into a neighborhood that didn't look a lot like me, wasn't so appealing to my teen-aged bike riding self. Yusef Hawkins was a constant presence in my mind when I rode into foreign outer borough neighborhoods. A few years later I convinced a girl friend that we should drive to Breezy Point. Of course I had an ulterior motive, besides whatever shenanigans we'd get into I wanted to see if we could get further in the car than I could on bike. Well a few minutes later I got my answer. The road had ended and we were surrounded not by water but tall grass. It was higher than the car, we couldnt even see the water but I suggested we drive deeper. We did and were rewarded by the sound of tires with no traction spinning out in the sand. She turned the car around and we high tailed it outta there.

That was all I knew of Breezy Point until Sandy hit. The number of tragically destroyed homes on inspired me to do some research and I learned it's a co-op community. Built from land purchased in the 60's but much of it developed only since the 80's.

A New York Times article from 2008 mention's this;

In 1960, when the neighborhood went co-op, Breezy Point was mostly a summer retreat for middle-class families from Brooklyn, particularly Marine Park, Sheepshead Bay and Flatbush. In the late 1990s, according to brokers, hundreds of residents began razing one-story bungalows and building year-round dwellings.

That might explain why I didn't notice so much community when I rode through. Unfortunately the community has a lot of undesired attention these days. Hopefully they can rebuild but I wonder how they will.

I watched this 20/20 report about Breezy Point.

Watch More News Videos at ABC | 2012 Presidential Election | Entertainment & Celebrity News

Two ABC producers were there when the storm hit, to cover the folks who'd refused the mandatory evacuation. Several residents expressed a stand our ground philosophy. I understand that. I write this blog and more substantial live a good part of my life from the perspective of this land is my land, where I'm from and will remain. I understand that way of thinking. But ultimately I know in my heart outside forces come into our situations and influence our lives. We can stay put, but if we don't adapt to our new realities we won't last long. Whether the reality is gentrification or climate change.

Considering the storm was the result of climate change (leave comments if you can prove otherwise) and at-sea-level communities like Breezy Point, the outer banks in North Carolina and all around the world are going to be exposed to more intense storms and higher water levels, I can't help but wonder if residents are going to make long lasting solutions (building higher at least) or simply engage in the kind of cognitive dissonance that leaves people doomed to repetition.