Anybody here ever been to 5 Pointz in NYC? Pictures make me want to see it.

[LiberalHeart]

http://newsgrinder.blogspot.com/2007/04/5-pointz-in-nyc-giving-graffiti-good.html

Where I live, graffiti is something city officials go after as soon as it appears, covering itu p -- but here it's encouraged. The result is a real work of art.

Tuesday I ran across something more traditional -- the back of a strip mall that had been painted with a mural of an early 1900s small town with shops, people, pets, etc. I was driving by, spotted it from the road, turned around, went back and spent a long time enjoying it. I've lived near it forever and never knew it was there till today. I love finding the unexpected in places that I thought I knew inside-out.

[Up2Late]

1. No, but that's where the film "Gangs of New York" was set.

I'm not really sure why, but we started getting a LOT of NY Subway style graffiti here in Atlanta about 10 years ago. Maybe it was because of NY's efforts to clean up the Subway trains or something.:shrug:

[LiberalHeart]

2. What we get in Toledo is really stupid stuff -- gang symbols, no art.

I had the "artists" hit one of my houses once. I never did get it all cleaned off.

[pnorman]

3. thanks for the link.

Here's that very impressive graffiti: http://www.fraudwasteabuse.com/2007/03/incredible-graffiti-covered-building-5-pointz-in-new-york-city.html

pnorman

[Up2Late]

4. Wow, those are pretty good. I should scan some of the pictures I took of this...

...smaller old building (which is completely gone now) that was an old contaminated and abandoned Car Battery factory, near where I use to work here in Atlanta. Their was always something interesting painted there.

[TomClash]

5. Not Five Points

Five Points was in Lower Manhattan near Foley Square, not far from what would later be called Chinatown and Little Italy. The graffiti artist used the name as a metaphor - I'd guess this is near the Hunters Point stop on the 7 train in Queens.

[Up2Late]

7. I think you're right, I just found this in the blog that posted it.

<http://www.fraudwasteabuse.com/2007/03/incredible-graffiti-covered-building-5-pointz-in-new-york-city.html>

...My wife knew someone in Queens, so we were lucky enough to be able to stay with them during our vacation. Every morning we would take the number 7 train from Flushing to Times Square and do our sightseeing until it got dark. Every morning on the train we would pass this large building that was totally covered with graffiti, and a lot of it looked really cool. I had to see it up close....

And it looks like it's on the Queens side of the East River too.

[Nevernose]

6. I really HATE graffiti

But that's not graffiti in your link, that's art. That's something really special.

Most of what I cover up is gang-related -- a couple of basic symbols, maybe a crown or a pitchfork or something -- and maybe the same set of initials sprayed every ten feet for a block. Even most of the tagger kids I know think the taggers in my neighborhood suck.