High Line Graffiti Almost All Rubbed Out

(Jake Dobkin's Flickr)

As the first section of the High Line park was poised to open last April, the mayor's office began painting over the graffiti next to the elevated tracks. And workers are still busy trying to make sure every last vestige of urban character and uniqueness is removed from sight! Last year the city identified about 20 buildings along the entire High Line as candidates for graffiti removal, and 18 owners are permitting the city to scrub them clean. Last year, Gothamist's resident graffiti expert Jake Dobkin vowed war if the city buffed the Revs/Cost mural at 23rd Street (seen here). So is Dobkin headed to the barricades with other street art aficionados?

Probably. Nine of the 18 buildings have already had their graffiti removed, and the remaining buildings are mostly along the unfinished second half of the track above 20th Street. Seth Carnes, an artist whose 2008 white, red and black painting of the words "i heart" was covered over with what he calls "a battleship gray layer of paint," tells City Room, "Certainly when I saw the drab gray paint over it, it was a tragic moment. Part of the act of the street art-form is what goes onto a wall is covered or changes. But I think a solid gray coat of paint over what used to be a nice textured brick wall with some good graffiti over it is not an improvement."

And photographer Peter Sutherland aptly describes the graffiti as "a visual cue as to the history of the High Line when it was closed down. Other than, like, weeds overgrowing, those are the only kind of little tidbits that tell you what was going on there, till whenever it stopped functioning." In other High Line news, the city is poised to buy several more blocks of the High Line from a developer which owns the track, meaning the park may ultimately extend to 34th Street—and doom even more graffiti!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on October 20, 2009 12:02 PM

Comments [rss]

birdword

what ever happened to neckface?

inoyourider

What an ugly 'mural'.

Get rid of this garbage.

'Crack is whack' is a mural.

'Graffiti Hall of Fame' (previously Graffiti-opoly) is a mural.

This is crap.

ART!

GRAFFITI IS ART, F*CK ALL YOU IDIOTIC HATERS. DUMB CUNTS, GET A LIFE!!

ART IS ART!

pinball29

YUPPIES HATE GRAFFITI, PERIOD. the only reason the High Line exists is so it can be lined w/ boring condo towers housing boring yuppie drones. Graffiti, from an era when Manhattan had creativity and daring, does not fit in w/ the current yuppie outlook, where importance is only attached to how much money you make and what you can buy and own. Its too late to try to save anything from the past. The yombies have arrived.

GOP

Before censoring my last post, I would just like to mention that I'm electronically "tagging/bombing" this post. This is just to show that graffiti is a nuisance and should be painted over. Thanks for listening.

GOP

WTF! Gothamist thought my last post where I wrote "WIZ SH" a million times is inappropriate?!?!?! And graffiti is? FOR SHAME!

hotstepper

you're having entirely too much fun with yourself. save it for the G train.

GOP

Sorry. Please leave while the grownups speak. Thanks.

obsoletest

I think the primary purpose graffiti serves is to reassure the Midwesterners now living in NYC that they are cooler than the people they left behind. If you don't own or work/live in the building in question, just stop.

hotstepper

whatever. we are taught how to print in grade school. CostRevs didn't really advance much after that.

Spirit of 76

photographer Peter Sutherland aptly describes the graffiti as "a visual cue as to the history of the High Line when it was closed down.

And now it's a visual cue as to the history of the High Line when it is re-opened. I find it ironic that many of the same people who say graffiti should be preserved also say the New York State Pavilion at Flushing Meadows isn't worth saving.

bklynbagel

that sucks but i mean.. now that the highline is open.. how many of us are running over there to hang out with the tourists? snoozeville. midtown = flyover state.

hug0chavez

"StedyRuckus" you must be from somewhere else. NY Graffiti isn't about looking pretty. Cost and Revs in block rollers, visible from blocks away, 20 feet high, on a(once)nearly unreachable, abandoned rail track, makes a statement. There's plenty of legal pretty graffiti all over the city, but Revs rollers are a vestige of a bygone era. Whether they buff it or not doesn't matter (they will), but to say Revs/Cost is garbage is just silly.

StedyRuckus

Hotstepper said it all.

But for the record I am from NYC, actually, born and raised in Brooklyn, and I grew up immersed in graff culture. Ironic that you try to call me out, especially about the so called lack of style in NYC graf, since NYC graf is actually ALL about style. When you say this billboard tag is a vestige of a bygone era, I'm curious what era you're talking about? The era when everyone and their mother started bombing? They caught fame off a gimmick, and it was simple, lets make this shit as huge as freaking possible. It doesn't mean it has any merit to it, other than people non-versed in graff culture can read it.

You also must have missed my comment about the WOLF piece in the bottom left of the flick, (of which only the top portion is visible). WOLF is freakin legend dude, because he was nice with it AND got mad ups. And if you don't know who WOLF is, then you need to take a refresher course in Freshness.

I know the whole game about getting ups, and bombing the mad crazy, seemingly impossible-to-get-to spots, I spent my half my teenage years climbing bridges, breaking on to roof tops, and running through train tunnels. But just because you hit an ill spot, it doesn't make it a statement.

But lets be real, REVS and COST got their ups, they got your attention, they caught plenty of fame with these joints, but it is mad ugly. Why there is even a discussion about wanting to preserve this shit, unless your name is Cost or Revs, is beyond me.

Qraymond

Cost Revs should be maintained.

As you can see by my avatar, I have some strong feelings about this.

SP

If they paint over it, it essentially just primes the canvas for someone else to get up on it again. It will happen, it's just a matter of time. There should be a competition, with a bounty for whoever gets up on it first. And not just for a quick throwie, they've got to go big.

ART!

Exactly!! This proves how DUMB and stupid of a mayor the city has!! What an idiot! wasting money on something that will NEVER go away... Give it up! Graffiti is ART! And people like me will always be here to go against you art hating losers. Props to all graffiti artists who are still bombing/tagging/piecing. Stay up! Let nothing stop you! Art is NOT a f*cking crime, focus on crimes that HARM people! Graffiti does NOT harm anyone!!!!

jibbly

I like some graffiti (never "scratchiti"), but isn't this just the nature of the beast? You tag, others tag over you, then the building management paints over it, etc. Street art isn't permanent, let it go.

Thespis

99% of the time, I'm against grafitti "artists." But very, very, (very!) rarely a piece of grafitti becomes iconic -- the Revs Cost grafitti on that building is one of those extremely rare cases, and it would be a shame to lose it.

StedyRuckus

Nothing iconic whatsoever of that shit. You are bugging. Besides there's still numerous giant Cost/Revs roller tags all over the city. Its a freaking roller tag! Banksy, it ain't. And I'm an old school graff head at that. Not hating on Revs or Cost, just putting this shit in persepective.