From the Queens Chronicle:
The New York State Pavilion’s rotunda received an unwelcome addition over the last month: graffiti riddling its crumbling, red-and-white interior walls.
Over a dozen “tags” now line the World’s Fair landmark’s interior ring, with bubble letters in various shades set at 6- to 10-foot intervals. The adjacent towers that supported what is left of the “Tent of Tomorrow” also have sporadic scrawls.
The vandalism — or street art, depending on whom you ask — has frustrated a motley crew of preservationists who have spent years trying restore the pavilion ahead of their big plans for the World’s Fair’s 50th anniversary in 2014.
The exact source of the graffiti is unknown. The Parks Department said in a statement the NYPD is investigating the incidents as part of its citywide vandalism task force.
The agency added it will remove the graffiti by its usual means, power washing, which it does with all landmarks, according to a spokesman.
The agency said the vandals broke in by cutting out a section of the fence surrounding the pavilion. Keeping them out is another matter, according to preservationists.
13 comments:
""cutting out a section of the fence surrounding the pavilion""
No No No --The Parks Dept is once again fulla shit !
Its not a fence but a rotting sheet ancient plywood patch across the gate behind the theater. (this was the service gate for stage back in the day)
Its so rotten and had holes for years. Vandals can likely break it with bare hands or just bend and shimmy in.
This is because sloppy-ness & neglect by the The Parks Dept itself.
That brick wall is to weak to support any type of real fence so they use thin boards and a chain.
Last I looked over 10 years ago all the Texico stars and almost all of Queens and Manhattan had been hacked out the map by vandals getting in the same way way.
It looks like graffiti vandalism is the least of its
problems.
Are some pieces of the structure are about to fall off?
Maybe Peter Vallone Jr. will take a photo op...power washing it himself.
After all, this blowhard is running for borough president.
I say stabilize the structure..paint it...save it as a striking silhouette symbol of a bygone era...and leave it alone!
A full restoration is a waste of good money.
It's been rotting since 1964!
"The vandalism — or street art, depending on whom you ask"
It's vandalism 100%. Only a maroon would call this street art.
Sort of like St Saviours, its the frog in a pan of water or preservation striptease.
Piece by piece it comes apart - to mitigate any public reaction - until there is no decency left.
I grew up in East Elmhurst, and have so many fond memories of the World's Fair in 64-65. There were so many enjoyable days that I spent there with family and friends. The state of Flushing Meadow Park, and the World's Fair structures is a disgrace. I know that preservationists are trying to save the park, and in some ways, I hope that they succeed. But in reality, I think the park is too far gone, and that we may just have to let go of the memories, tear everything down, and come up with some new ideas for the spaces left behind. The ruins have been left to decay too long. RIP!
A half century of spineless lying and corrupt politicians have rendered this historic site a slum!
There is so much potential in the old World's Fair structures to tear them down.
What we need is a coalition of artists, preservationists, and parks activists to collaborate and raise money for a Re-restoration. What I mean by that is to rehabilitate the structures by translating them into the 21st Century. The designs ought to have both contemporary and futuristic (as we envision) designs but not lose the spirit and nostalgia of what came before.
If the bigwigs who funded the High Line could realize the potential of this blank canvass there would be a revitalization of not only the park but of the surrounding neighborhoods.
A half century of spineless lying and corrupt politicians have rendered this historic site a slum!
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The only spinelessness are the people of Queens who let this happen.
You would not see the mess called Flushing Meadows in Brooklyn or Manhattan, that is for sure.
Besides, if the politicians are lying and corrupt as you claim, what does this say about the people of Queens putting them in office for term after term?
eh?
"what does this say about the people of Queens putting them in office for term after term?"
They are democrats ?
Dems seem to put party above all else.
Where is the NYPD Citywide Vandals unit?
4th paragraph.
The old NYPD "vandal squad" is known as the "rubber gun" unit.
They don't do much except draw salaries (eventually pension payments).
These, most likely, are officers who have faced disciplinary problems and have been de-facto demoted.
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