Last week I had the chance to attend an opening at Pomegranate Gallery in SoHo for the new show “Oil on Landscape: Art From Wartime Contemporaries of Baghdad,” curated by a former military officer who served in Iraq until 2007, Christopher J. Brownfield.

I reported on the story with my classmates from the CUNY J-School: Shuka Kalantari, who put together this great webpage for our story, and Tyler Mitter, who shot video.

As a collection from Baghdad, the art covers a wide range: from renderings of eye-witnessed violence to scenes of everyday life for Iraqis. The show evoked in me a sense of loss. The artists and many guests who know Baghdad miss a place that cultivated Middle Eastern culture. What they have in its place is a devastated home many can’t even return to until conditions improve and their lives are no longer at risk.

Naturally, the conversation around this art is political. What everyone seemed to agree on was the idea that art can help an individual transcend fear and anger and develop a better understanding through the feelings and experiences expressed. Visitors and artists seem to almost reach for each other with a desire to connect and make the war go away.

Reporting by Craig Thompson and Annie Shreffler

Ernesto Rosales freely admits that he and his wife, Maria Reyna, are undocumented immigrants. After living in Queens with their children for eight years, it’s hard for them to believe Maria could ever be deported.
They crossed in to the US from Mexico near Tijuana when Maria was four months pregnant. She narrowly avoided a miscarriage in the mountains east of Tijuana. They paid a coyote $4,000 to fly them from Arizona to New York and now live in Woodside, Queens.

[CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW SLIDESHOW]
Ernesto and Maria say they never expected the care and concern they have been shown by New Yorkers. Their first child, Alejandro, was born At Metropolitan Hospital in Manhattan and diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Maria had to visit him at the hospital for the first month. Then, when he was three, Alejandro was diagnosed with leukemia, and treated at Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital. Once Alejandro could travel, the Make-A-Wish Foundation flew the family to Orlando to see Mickey Mouse. Maria keeps the dozens of stuffed animals her son received on top of a cabinet and has two albums full of pictures showing his time in the hospital and their Florida trip.
Alejandro finally began school this year, at the age of 8, and receives occupational therapy and special education at PS 9 on Grand Avenue in Queens. Alejandro’s little sister, Evelyn, is four and will start school next year.
Earlier this year, Maria and her sister-in-law took a train to see relatives in Chicago, but were stopped near Buffalo by immigration officials. The women were arrested and put up in a hotel rather than in a holding cell, as she was traveling with Alejandro. She will appear before a judge on May 16th. Her lawyer has told her, regardless of the needs of her son, her chances of staying in the US are very slim.
“They (the immigration authorities) don’t care about the rest of the family,” said Ernesto. “They don’t care who the kids stay with. They only care about her.”

Maria’s situation is not surprising. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with enforcing US immigration laws,. have ramped up their activity lately, stopping trains and buses at borders and even reaching into the borough of Queens. Raids in New York City used to be unusual. Now they are fostering a climate of fear and forcing community groups to engage in aggressive educational counter-tactics to ensure that immigrants know their rights before ICE knocks on their door.

Maria’s Legal Case
Despite being her son’s primary care giver, Maria she has very little legal footing to prevent her imminent deportation.
“Children are never a good enough reason,” said Theodore Rothman, 37, an immigration attorney practicing in New York City. “The child can stay and be a ward of the state.”
Rothman also said that if parents were allowed to stay because their children were born in the US, it would create havoc on the legal system.
“It would be a policy nightmare,” he said. “It would overwhelm and create a huge backlash against the system. You can’t just reward illegal immigrants for (having US-born children), because it undercuts the people who are doing it the right way. It goes to the contrary of the rules of the country.”
In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility (IIRIR) Act was passed. The act toughened regulations regarding undocumented workers in the US, expanding the criminal grounds for deportation and giving immigrants far less legal recourse. It also changed the definition by which an immigrant could claim a ‘removal waiver.’ This waiver’s delicate wording, could hav been Maria’s defense due to her child with exceptional needs, before it was changed. Previous to 1996, an immigrant had to show “extreme hardship” to stay in the U.S., but after 1996, a person had to show “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship.”
“The law doesn’t provide any benefit for her just because of her child,” said Alan Wernick, professor at Baruch College and director of the CUNY Citizenship and Immigration Project. “Either the child goes to Mexico, or stays with other relatives. It’s a very tragic outcome.”
Ernesto is aware that the law will not benefit them.
“We just work for a better life, that’s why we came,” he said, speaking for Maria, who is just learning English. “We don’t do criminal things. We work hard and don’t make any problems, but the law doesn’t understand.”

Amtrak and Greyhound: “Raids on Wheels”

Maria was detained by ICE agents after they boarded her train in upstate New York and asked passengers for identification, a practice that is becoming more frequent but that remains contentious.
“Sadly, we think there are families being fed into the deportation system through the trains and buses,” said Maria Muentes, the co-founder of Families for Freedom, a defense network for immigrants facing deportation that calls the ICE boardings ‘raids on wheels.’
Families for Freedom has recently begun an awareness campaign geared towards immigrants to let them know that when customs officials board a bus or train, they are not required to answer any of their questions without an attorney present.
“They claim that they are simply stepping up border inspections but essentially they are bringing the border to you,” said Juan Carlos Ruiz, Director of New York New Sanctuary Movement, in a press release. “It’s easy pickings for them to target unsuspecting people on these buses and trains but a nightmare for New York City families who will face deportation as a result of having taken that train or bus ride.”

Trouble in Queens: Training for the Knock on the Door
The raids on the buses and trains are but one small part of the enforcement efforts by ICE in New York. In Queens, house raids are becoming more and more common. ICE agents knock on apartment doors, seeking out tenants or others who cannot prove they belong there.
“We’ve definitely seen an increase in fear, and an increase in stories going around the community in the last six months about house raids,” said Valeria Trevis, the executive director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE) based in Jackson Heights. “But it’s hard to get the stories first hand, because ICE doesn’t publicize where the raids have been. But we have had members who’ve said, ICE came to my door, they were looking for somebody.”
NICE has included in their English instruction a program called “ICE Raids Emergency Readiness Plans.” This Orwellian-sounding program preps people on what to expect when someone from ICE knocks on their door. It is imperative that immigrants do not let the ICE agents into their apartments, the program explains, because once inside, the agent has the legal power to remove anyone at will from the apartment.
“We train them to be afraid to open the door,” Trevis said. “We’re teaching people to ask ICE for a warrant, to slip the warrant under the door, and if the warrant is not for people living in the house, they don’t have to open the door.”
These preventative classes are indicative on the climate of fear that persists within the mindset of the membership that Trevis serves.
“Doing this work, you sometimes forget about the shock factor,” she said. “In a lot of ways it’s amazing that we have to teach community members about these training techniques. But the community gets intimidated, and lets ICE inside the door.”
Aside from house raids and ICE knocking on people’s doors, there have also been incidents of workplace raids. Recently, two businesses on Roosevelt Avenue were raided for selling social security numbers. There was also the case of the Fresh Direct workers in December of 2007, a story that sent a chill through the immigrant community.
Fresh Direct workers were attempting to unionize. To counteract this, the company threatened the workers with a raid on their work authorization records. The company was able to use a provision in the Patriot Act that gave them immunity from any legal repercussion if they submitted to an ICE audit. According to the New York Times, the company lost 100 workers, who quit for fear of their work status being revealed, and subsequently failed in their union drive.
“People in the community know about the Fresh Direct case,” said Trevis, “so that also makes them fearful about both workplace and house raids. After the Fresh Direct situation, some people were actually afraid to go out on the street or to go on the trains.”

The Many-Tentacles of ICE
While it is impossible to give one entity responsibilty for the increased level of fear among immigrants in Queens and elsewhere, the ICE is, judging by its published statistics, winning the deportation battle.
In 2006 alone, ICE set new records for alien removals, up to 187,513 in that year alone. ICE does focus on tracking down those who have criminal records or who have ignored previous deportation decisions, or been accused of document fraud. ICE officials did not return calls seeking comment.
“We’re kind of seeing an overall more aggressive enforcement all around the five boroughs,” said Maria Muentes. “In every aspect of civil life, we’re seeing more house raids and workplace raids.”
ICE has also increased its number of employees. The agency’s Web site, showsthe number of fugitive operation teams tripled in the year 2005 and records were set in 2006 for total number of worksite enforcements.
While these statistics reflect nationwide trends, in New York City many immigrants were relieved when Mayor Michael Bloomberg enacted Executive Order 41 in 2003, prohibiting civic agencies from inquiring into and disclosing the immigration status of individuals. New York earned the moniker of being a ‘sanctuary city’ because of this. However, a loophole in this order allowing for agency workers to ask about immigration status if there is a suspicion of illegal activity has enabled ICE to pursue immigrant cases at prison facilities.
“These kinds of enforcement mentality and activities,” said Juan Carlos Ruiz, “has really done away with the significance of who is legal and who is not. It has been rendered insignificant. If you are an immigrant, unless you are a citizen, even if you have a green card, once they identify you as a criminal, forget it. They are piggybacking immigrant cases onto these petty criminal cases.”
In addition, ICE has implemented in the New York City region the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), a pilot, voluntary program that allows detained immigrants to wear ankle bracelets and move around the city.
“ISAP is meant to be an alternative to detention, so for folks who are in detention it’s an alternative,” said Janis Rosheuvel of Families for Freedom. “But you can only be outside for 12 hours and you have to check in with an immigration official three times a week. It really works against their freedom of movement.”

Community Groups, Networked and Active
Many groups in Queens are active with educational programs and campaigns. The groups help with green card, work visa, and naturalization paperwork, but are more aggressively educating immigrants about their legal rights New Immigrant Community Empowerment is perhaps most in touch with people in the Queens community.
“The membership are low-wage workers in precarious industries such as child care, construction and the restaurant industry,” said Valeria Trevis. “We are doing a lot of preventative work.”
Cathy Ellen Rosenholtz is the pastor at St. Jacobus Evangelical Lutheran Church, located at the nexus of Elmhurst, Woodside, and Jackson Heights. The small congregation is made up of people from ten countries.
“We’re in the midst of a community of diverse immigrants,” she said. “I talk to families and walk the streets, and people just want a good job and good schools for their kids and are willing to work hard for it. It’s clear they want to be active contributors to the community. And the Bible says that we’re called upon to welcome strangers. It’s essential to who we are.”
Rosenholtz helped facilitate a meeting of the Fresh Direct workers and organizers in the church gymnasium. She also helped fund an undocumented woman’s flight back to Peru to take care of her ailing mom after her Queens-based factory was raided by ICE workers and her undocumented status was uncovered. They have also held well-attended immigrant workshops in tandem with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Families for Freedom.
“We see at a local level the human consequences of political decisions,” she said. “I just hope that people at the local level can be heard.”

In Woodside, Depression Kept At Bay
Maria and Ernesto’s unfortunate story stands in for many families facing the harsh side of immigration enforcement.
“She needs to stay here,” Ernesto said. “It’s not a life with her in Mexico.”
Their apartment is a bedroom and small sunroom separated by a locked door from the bathroom and kitchen they share Ernesto’s brothers’ families. . Despite the small quarters, the family seems comfortable and wants the opportunity to make a life for themselves here.
“If you’re a criminal and you go outside and make problems,” he said, “this country doesn’t need you. Because this country has to be an example for other countries.”
But he struck a philosophical tone about Maria’s possible deportation, noting, as he said, “life, it continues.
“You don’t have to be depressed,” he said. “I work hard and I’ll send her money, and see what’s going to happen. The life is very long. It’s hard, it’s not easy. I’m not concentrating on my job because of this, I’m just thinking, what’s going to happen? But you don’t have to get depressed.”

photo by Roisin O’Connor

Just a day after the shutdown, it was easy to talk with shoppers who purchased knock-offs, and I even spoke with a vendor long enough that he expressed his great dissatisfaction with the whole system he is caught up in–from the exploitative boss who expects him to take the risks and the heat, to the label executives that demand a city crack down. The question everyone on Canal Street was left with is: Was this the best use of the city’s resources? Is it a big deal to protect labels from imitation? Is it worthwhile to put people out of work? Certainly the shoppers and the street peddlers don’t pose a threat to anyone, so is it worth the hassle? Why or why not?You can decide after reading and listening to more of their stories whether or not you would close shops and confiscate the illegal goods.

I feel invigorated by the pace set for the live-blog event I did at Tuesday’s AUC/ICFJ film screening. It’s true that journalists get a bang out of their work just from the energy required to get the story. It took some time for me to find a stride between reading subtitles and responding to the meanings in each short film. This format was new to me, but I can see why so many people like it.

Annie interviews Craig Duff (Photo by Alaa al Dajani)

The audio section of the reporting came a little easier to me. I admit, I was intimidated to pop up and interview a room full of film makers and journalists. What I discovered was that, knowing what it’s like to be in my shoes, everyone I spoke to was gracious and helpful.

Alaa, one of the students there to present a film short, sent me this photo and said, “now I can easily share yesterday with my family and friends back in Cairo. They haven’t seen the blog live though but I am sure they will enjoy it and appreciate it.”

It’s cool to count people in Cairo as I consider who my audience is!

The following is a live-blog post of the documentary shorts screening, “First-Person Films: Student Documentaries from Egypt”, sponsored by The American University in Cairo and the International Center for Journalists, hosted in New York City’s Tribeca Grand Hotel.

Six films were shown: The Art of Mandur (Fan Mandur), Kasr El Masr: Palace of Critical Care, A Life on the Nile , Away from Home, Lokmet Eish (Making a Living), The No Choice (about blogger Alaa Abd el Fatah) and Resonance (the story of a determined Oud player).

10:00 Craig is the last to leave

One sure side-effect of live blogging is head swim. That being said, if I collect my thoughts for just a minute, I see that we just spent the evening witnessing the power of video storytelling. Guests talked about the foot ironer, the sailor, the Iraqi mother as if they understood on a deeply personal level what their lives are like. There was some undertone of joy at having the opportunity to learn about people half a world away.

One other result of an evening well spent–exhaustion. I’m grateful to Craig for taking a few more minutes to tell me his thoughts on how the screening went, and some of what he took away from his time in Cairo:

Craig Duff Interview

9:30 The Room Clears

Just a few guests are left…I jumped into the middle of one conversation to have a few words with our visiting film maker and any guests still willing to talk:

Alaa Al Dajani

8:30 After Party

Where does the time go when you’re munching nuts and cheese? Guests aren’t eager to brave the cold quite yet. They’d rather chat, and they are all enthusiastic about the films they saw.

Listen here.

7:45 the Q & A

My computer and I had to part ways for this portion of the evening…it’s a mic thing. There were plenty of questions (though none for me to relay from any comments! Too bad.) Overall, it was clear the audience connected with many of the characters in the film. Their questions were about how the people are now, where they are, if they have rebuilt relationships we were concerned about, etc. And of course, some genuine amazement at the ER scenes, to which Craig said most Egyptians would not be so surprised by what they saw if the film were to make it on television.

I’m off to interview guests!

7:30 Oud

Mustafa Said Mohamed Anta is portrayed with determination from a young age, when he defies his father to learn to play the Oud. A great moment is when his ire is raised by a young student of his who doubts he’ll be able to apply to music school.

Clearly he wants to bring his country into the new century and embrace what is beautiful about the music that is in his soul. He says, “If there was no hope, I’d be composing commercial music”

7:20 Just Blog NO?

Not for the blogger-activist Alaa Abd el Fatah and his family. It took me a while to grasp the meaning behind this story. This isn’t about blogging an opinion and getting into trouble with the law, this is a life choice that a man and woman (Alaa’s parents) made even before all their children were born.

They raised their family to step into the fray, add their bodies to the count, stand up and be heard. They attend demonstrations together like we might go to the movies–or that’s how it was before things became really violent. Now they know what it’s like to be beat, sit in jail, and petition for friends. There is not family time that isn’t political time. It’s their life choice, and their courage comes through loud & clear.

7:00 If only my grandmother had known: FOOT IRONING?

Yes, he (note: it’s a MAN’S job) curls his toes to hold the iron. Even better: who needs that little iron sprayer we have when you can just spray water over a garment with your MOUTH? I like the music Farah El Alfy, Haidy Ammar and Habiba Yussr chose to keep this light and fun.

The foot ironer feels this is his destiny, all he knows, and it paid to educate his children. He walks with a crooked back and a proud heart….but I’m not sure I should regret my wash & wear clothes.

6:55 Iraqi Mothers

One image of this Iraqi refugee family stopped me short: the little girl thumbing a newspaper with images of war in her home country. Her sadness becomes ours in the short film, as we see her hugged repeatedly by her mother. Mother Om Olma is determined to keep her family together, happy and forward looking despite tears when she misses her own mother.

While we watch her children kick a ball in the yard, Om Olma tells us if everything is taken away from her but security, she will still be happy. That is a lot for us Americans to ponder.

6:50 Boat with a View

A boatman tries to make a living & talks about the hassles of government that slow him down & can result in an immediate/arbitrary change of career if he gets the answers wrong. I feel for him, and long for a chance to catch the vision captured in those great shots.

6:40 Everybody’s ER

Chaos seems to reign in this hospital–and yes, the film maker deserves kudos for this access! Anger, tears and desperation (both of patients and doctors) is palpable. Families swarm in on doctors & slow the process…administrators resort to harsh words to maintain order. The basement scene at the end makes everything at first seem hopeless, but the speaker says “There is no worker like the Egyptian worker,” turning the story upwards with determination and hope.

6:30 Potter & Son

A touching story, told so quickly, about two potters, father & son. The younger tries to find his own artistic path and keep his bond with his father, the older feels so strongly about keeping the craft a tradition after working so hard to become what he is now. Timeless and universal.

6:15 small weather delay!

A little snow stuck and slowed down our trains, but that didn’t keep guests away, just a little late. We’re just starting now after brief remarks. Here are photos to keep you busy while I watch:

Alaa & Craig

Alaa Al Dajani, Craig Duff, David Irons & Elisa Tinsley

I have the awesome responsibility to bring you live-blog coverage from the Tribeca Grand Hotel of this evening’s screening, “First-Person Films: Student Documentaries from Egypt”, sponsored by the International Center for Journalists.  

The screening will show six short documentary films made by students from the American University in Cairo.  Their instructor, Emmy-award winning video journalist Craig Duff ,  is just back from teaching in Egypt as a Knight International Journalism Fellow. He will present the films and participate, along with one of the filmmakers, Alaa Al Dajani, in a Q & A after the screening.

Your questions and comments are welcome!

It surprised a lot of New Yorkers who had pounded the streets wearing Obama signs and stickers, but in the end, the New York primary was called for Hillary.

I headed for Queens on super Tuesday to see who might have skipped the NYGiants parade to cast their vote, while all of my classmates did the same in their assigned neighborhoods around the city. Many of our stories are featured on the school’s news service page.

Although the polls closed at 9 p.m., several of us kept up the coverage by going to campaign headquarters and celebrations. My classmate Lakshmi Gandhi and I headed for Hillary’s victory party. She called in reports to a live student broadcast (now a podcast on the news service), I shot video. Next to me on the floor was Queens resident Steve Behar, a hopeful for a 2009 seat on NYCity Council representing Queens district 19. He is a long-time campaigner for the Democratic Party and was thrilled with Hillary’s win.

You can see what it was like to be right there with her supporters in this video.

A visit to the homepage for RocktheVote prominently displays news that young voters are”surging” at the polls. From there you can find a link to a November article in the Orange, the paper at Syracuse University, that presented the findings from a recent report saying today’s college students, or “millennials“, prefer community service over politics.

The report found that while more young people are voting, some see it as a symbolic act rather than a meaningful way to create change.

Reports of corruption, war, terrorism and widening economic gaps are making today’s generation more thoughtful and desirous for real social improvement, but they seem to prefer taking action themselves than to rely on a politician to get the job done.

USA Today reported in its defining article on millennials that “A study of more than 260,000 college freshmen released this year by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute found that 66.3% of freshmen surveyed last fall said it is “essential or very important” to help others, the highest percentage to say so in 25 years.” It went on to confirm that this generation volunteers more, but believes less in voting.

However, some “generation next”-ers exchanged email messages online that were incredibly insightful on current politics. About a Rolling Stone Cover preceding this past November election, Annika Carlson wrote “you know there’s something big percolating in the minds of Americans. People want change — and what’s more, they’re planning to make it happen on Nov. 7 by voting for Democrats.” She cites a failed “stay the course”plan in Iraq and unbelievable scandals by Republicans as catalysts for young voters to take action at the polls. She thinks that will make a difference.

“Democrats…are providing innovative solutions to the problems of regular people in areas such as health care, economic growth and education. It’s time for a change, and Democrats are standing out as the right choice for America,” she said.

John Della Volpe argues that the more millennials get involved in anything, the more they’ll participate in politics. His site SocialSphere reports that he seems to be right, seeing an increase in young voters participating in the 2004 election and “in 2006 as more votes were cast by people under 30 than by voters over 65.”

The blog post goes on to say most of the current presidential candidates are mishandling their approach, if they even have one, to winning favor with young students. So who has their favor at the moment?

CBS News takes it for granted that millennials favor Obama. In an article more about Obama’s appeal to generation Xers, a quick glance at the youngest voting population doesn’t seem to give them much credit for thinking about politics, but rather that they are seen as a group to market to.

“Obama’s boomer campaign managers prefer to sell him to the Millennials as a cool brand name with its very own catchy slogan, “Generation Obama,” that they can embrace. …It may be one reason X-ers have not overwhelmingly embraced his candidacy. Hillary Clinton is way out ahead in polls among all age categories except the Millennials, who favor Obama.”

It may be a good idea to keep a closer eye on this segment of the voting public. Just like older generations tend to under estimate the power of the trends this group is savvy to, they may not be aware that millennials are reading, watching, capturing, blogging, posting and sharing their thoughts about politics at unheard of speed.

I new if I read through enough comments on Adaora Udoji and John Hockenberry’s blog “Your Billion Dollar President,” I’d find the one I dreaded–that “what’s wrong” with the presidential election is the media’s fault. A recent comment by “James” didn’t pull punches:

I believe that we need to silence the infotainment community by dissallowing their profit from the dicsussion and polling process. Why are we even having a conversation about “billion” dollar presidents? Because the infotainment community, yourselves included, has fully recognized and exploited the commercial value of the political race. the media should not be allowed to profit from the democracy.

It’s hard to fault James for concluding that journalists are profiteers when the same site promotes their new morning show with all the best cliches: ” just the beginning,” “in partnership with,” “an entirely new sound in public radio,” “unprecedented personality-driven format,” “Up-to-the-minute,” ” charismatic hosts,” “vibrant team” and “in-depth news coverage.”

That’s laying it on pretty thick, but I would encourage James to dig a little deeper in the sight and see what the internet and new ideas in journalism are bringing to the front: more real responses from real people. I happen to love the water cooler videos and think the energy and humor the two hosts bring to the project helps regular folks on the street loosen up and make some real comments.

If we didn’t have crazy journalists willing to do unusual things like bundling themselves up against the cold and position themselves by a watercooler in the middle of a busy downtown, asking passersby to stop and chat about the elections for everyone’s “infotainment,” then how else would we learn what the rest of the country is thinking and make more informed choices?

As for election ringtones…my favorite was the Jackson 5 take on Hilary’s name, but what if the best sounding ringtone doesn’t match your election choice? We need an undecided tone, I think. Let’s just see how that plays out.

[above: bombing with bucks, Madison Ave. style]

Reading Randy Kennedy’s article documenting the end of an era in the history of graffiti art as the Spring St. haven makes way for bajillion-dollar condos, struck me with great irony after my daily ride in the shuttle at Times Square. There, today, I was confronted with a new kind of graffiti–the bought and paid for, revenue generating kind sanctioned by the MTA as advertising.

City officials call  graffiti art–created without permission and without generating ad dollars–vandalism or defacement and spend tax money to remove it from subway cars or non-designated walls.  Now advertisers can enjoy a new double standard when it comes to deciding what is good for the public .  Ads running in the shuttle transform the car into an encapsulating advertisement and make it part of the barrage of advertising hitting New Yorkers inside taxis, on the sides of buildings, in the grocery store isle, before viewing videos….it never ends.

Almost a year ago, when David Dunlap began lamenting the great 10-year deal Viacom scored with the MTA to place their wrap-ads in the shuttle area, officials planning the ad-bombs actually told him they didn’t want to overwhelm anyone.

Huh? I can think of a few focus group members who might not appreciate a huge alcoholic beverage pouring over their heads. So the dilemma is really whether or not we throw out the “might overwhelm someone” argument altogether and allow ads and graffiti to claim the pristine public space of sidewalks, air space, elevator doors, park walls, intersections…..  Just like we tolerate audio noise, New Yorkers may have to up their tolerance to visual noise.

If graffiti is the city’s “broken window” then what is a subway car full of spilling scotch or station pillars covered in luxury chocolate? The city’s  “overspending debt crisis?”

[bombing old school: the artists' way]

[Chocolatier tagging?]