It's by no means a Downtown Jersey City issue - the same thing is going on in Manhattan and Brooklyn -- even in the best areas -- but don't get me wrong, I hope they catch the "Qweer" tagger hitting Newark Avenue storefront windows with acid etching spray paint.

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NYC graffiti underworld writes its future

By Sebastian Smith (AFP) ? Sep 7, 2009

NEW YORK ? Artists usually crave light. Robert, 25, chose the dead of night. "It's safer that way," he said.

Working on a rough Brooklyn street, he had only 10 minutes to paint before he fled, mistaking an approaching car for the police. Left behind him on a brick wall: two large, dainty seahorses. "I think it's actually rather beautiful," Robert said.

Despite efforts by New York's gentrifying mayor, Michael Bloomberg, graffiti has not only survived, but is reinventing itself in the city that created the modern urban phenomenon.
The 1970s, 1980s era of subway trains flooded in spray paint may be over.

Yet tags, as signatures are known, and paintings still cover bridges, rail platforms and storefronts. Graffiti chic is even making forays into the swanky Manhattan art scene.
Bloomberg, who stakes his reputation on preventing the city from returning to its grimy past, has declared war on the vandals.

Every day, a task force equipped with 27 power-hose trucks attempts to force back the tide of aerosol paint.

Last year they cleared 8,496 pieces of graffiti, up from 5,990 the year before, a City Hall official said, asking not to be named. This year, the teams are on track to clear 8,500 items.
The law requires property owners either to clean graffiti themselves, call the city to clean it, or declare they want the painting to remain. Now, new legislation is planned to shorten the time between graffiti appearing and the power hoses being deployed.

"We are very aggressive," the official said.
Yet the city is fighting an uphill battle. Even determining the extent of the problem is difficult, since graffiti pops up overnight.

"We just keep trying our best," the official said. "No matter what the economy we're not letting the city go back to the '70s."

Eric Felisbret, a veteran graffiti artist and historian, said the practice is too vibrant to wash away.

"Graffiti's been around since the start of man. Soon as we could scratch on something we did," he said.
Felisbret, author of a book called "graffiti NEW YORK" due out this year, reckons there's as much graffiti as ever, only spread across the city, instead of being concentrated on trains as it was 20 years ago.

"When they cleaned up the trains, they didn't eliminate graffiti writers, but dispersed them," he said.
And in a globalized society, New York has even become a magnet for ambitious taggers from cities as far away as Berlin and Sao Paolo.

"Many make pilgrimages," Felisbret, 46, said. "New York is very valuable for a writer's resume."
New York officials consider graffiti a menace that lowers house prices and deters business. At best, many residents would agree, graffiti is a mess.

But behind that swirling, aerosol calligraphy hides an entire subculture.

Graffiti has its own laws, cliques and heroes -- enigmatic figures like the late Iz the Whiz in New York, long elusive JA, or Britain's globe-trotting, incognito Banksy.

There is a separate language.

"Tags" are scrawled signatures that take a couple seconds to execute. "Throw-ups" are more complex, using colored bubble letters and needing two to three minutes.

Then there are "pieces," shorthand for masterpieces, which are full blown murals and require hours to complete.

Some writers are only interested in "bombing," which means putting up as many tags as possible. Others have an artistic bent. "They might have been oil painters or sculptors," Felisbret said.

The greatest respect is traditionally earned by those spraying trains, subway tunnels, high bridges or walls -- anywhere involving physical danger.

But the motive is always the same. "People do it for recognition, to become famous," Felisbret said.
Penalties are often light. Graffiti is mostly classed as a misdemeanor, punishable by fines of maximum 1,000 dollars or a year in jail. Possibly both.

And even serious felony charges aren't always considered the end of the world: hardened taggers adore the notoriety.

-- Kinder, gentler graffiti --

Meanwhile, the same economic forces transforming crime-ridden, artistic hothouses like Chelsea into millionaire's retreats are creeping into the world of graffiti.

When Dash Snow, a hell-raising artist, died from a drug overdose this July, his memorial took place not at some fetid squat, but at Deitch Projects, a cutting edge gallery in SoHo.
Snow's tag, a curly, multi-colored "SACER," was painted by one of the late artist's friends over the entire front of the building. But that was just part of the show, not vandalism.
Don Pablo Pedro, a gangly artist with colored finger nails and the sides of his head shaved, said the memorial demonstrated how borders are blurring.

"Graffiti's getting capitalized," he said, recounting how he'd just done a big mural -- with the building owner's authorization -- to promote his upcoming art exhibition.
Others who started on the streets have gone on to lucrative collaboration with clothes designers, video game makers, and even big corporate advertising campaigns.
Hardcore writers mistrust the commercialization and the growing practice of seeking permission to paint.
"You would have absolutely no respect," Felisbret said. "You would be considered a toy, even if you were very talented at your craft."
But attitudes are shifting, he said, as writers gain interest in the sheer aesthetics and the chance to break out of poverty.
"They say, 'hey, I'm an artist and I'll paint when I can -- illegally if I have to, but legally if it's easy."

Robert, an art student, is part of that new generation.
He spent hours using a scalpel to cut a detailed stencil of his seahorse, before heading out at 3:00 am.

Then on a sidewalk littered with empty cans, broken car window glass and a discarded condom, he began spraying his "piece."

Constantly he gave nervous looks over his shoulder and he had not quite finished the second seahorse when he panicked at the sight of an approaching car.

Police were his main concern. He'd also been mugged two weeks earlier in the same neighborhood.

Yet away from the danger, the inexperienced rebel lapped up graffiti's enduring romance.

"It's really a staple of New York. People come from all over the world to do that stuff," he said. "I want to see if I can come up with something that measures up."

Copyright ? 2009 AFP

Now if some human dog would just tag them with acid-etching paint it'll be really New Joisee!

You can't write this stuff!

Not quite. Rather glass is empty, stolen, defiled, smashed, and rolled into dust...and then dropped into Kilauwheaha to be indistinguishable from dross forever.

Jersey CIty's fondest, but impossible, aspiration is to be a half empty glass. It will never happen no matter how many real estate agents pray to their gods.

When the immigrant visas expire, so does Jersey City!

glass half full kinda guy huh?

There is no HUB "Downtown"...it's a bunch of immigrant workers scurrying off on train and buses to other communities at 6PM. Those who LIVE here, scurry IN from Manhattan to sleep at lower rents.

Alll the "amenities" downtown are trompe l'oile fakes made to look like community living. Oh joy, another STARBUCKS...WITH Wi-Fi!!!!!!!

The HUB IS Journal Square but alas it is the hub of a failed city in every sense of the word, a corrupt little burb living in the shadow of a great city. It might be thought of as the workcamp of NYC when times are good and a vast emptiness when times turn dirty. It is at it's heart an old Mafia run town beyond the interests of sensible people where crooked pols feed off the hard work of the working few.

When times are good, NYC needs an outlet for migrant workers, when times get bad, they are let go to be fed upon by the predators.

Isn't there wonderful irony that the most right-wing of the City Council is an UNDERTAKER?

Quote:

tommyc_37 wrote:
Without a doubt, it has been exciting watching Jersey City's skyline grow. JC literally grew a skyline in 10 years, pretty impressive....
Question - does anybody have a photo comparison, JC's skyline pre-1990 versus current?

A few threads on here are dealing with old Jersey City - the Old Timer's looking back thread and the New Skyscrappers Downtown Since 2001 - as it turns out Google has scanned in some nice picture books to look at online.

1) Jersey City 1940-1960 (Just click below):
http://books.google.com/books?id=Be5f ... ad=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

2) Jersey City (Just click below):
http://books.google.com/books?id=GUWQ ... ad=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

3) Jersey City in Old Post Cards (Just click below):
http://books.google.com/books?id=2VN9 ... EwDw#v=onepage&q=&f=false

4) Railroads of Hoboken & Jersey City (Just click below):
http://books.google.com/books?id=R2ug ... 2552#v=onepage&q=&f=false

...and even more Jersey City books here (Just click below):
http://books.google.com/books?q=relat ... =gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1

Without a doubt, it has been exciting watching Jersey City's skyline grow. JC literally grew a skyline in 10 years, pretty impressive. One of the coolest parts of living in JC is seeing the changes... (cue some of the old school JCers chiming in here...) Fact is, I love urban vistas and skylines and I think it's pretty cool that I can look out my window and see a modern, glassy skyline, from my 1860's brownstone. Love the contrast.

Question - does anybody have a photo comparison, JC's skyline pre-1990 versus current?

Regarding the "hub" of Jersey City...it really has become Downtown. Journal Square (in particular Bergen Ave and JFK) does have a "hubby" feel, but think about it - all the corporations are located Downtown on the waterfront. YES, the area clears out after 6 pm, but hopefully this will change as the area further develops. Also, people from other parts of JC, tend to visit Downtown, with it's waterfront views, restaurants on Grove, and bars. So I feel that Downtown is the "hub" of JC (although I do understand that it was originally named Downtown because it was down the hill). I hope that Journal Square develops into a 2nd true hub, so we have two!

Well, thank God for all these new buildings, otherwise the city might have been in financial trouble today and our taxes might have been raised.

I also forgot to mention Washington Common, across the street from Trump. You can just barely make it out in the photograph, at the base of Trump just above the greenish roof of the Candlewood suites. 12 stories, 2006 I think was the year.

Also interesting is the towers that are basically waiting in the wings for financing and the economic recovery:

Trump 2
70 Columbus
90 Columbus
Metropolis Towers Expansion 1&2
The Metropolitan
San Remo
110 First Street
111 First Street
Harborside 4

And then there are the more abstract building plans that are on the horizon, but not totally tangible:

Goldman Sachs Tower II
Evertrust II
2 and 30 Montgomery Street replacement
Toll Brothers PAD Towers

Wow, so there are 15 new skyscrapers Downtown since 2001 in the above picture - but ianmac47, you're saying there are 7 more -- so there are really 21 towers in all ...and that doesn't even mention the many new rather large condo buildings all along Newark Avenue and all the changes on Grand Street -- that's just an amazing amount of building in ten years!

Quote:

Its actually been a while since I've updated this, but this is still pretty accurate.

Google Maps

This is also a really great map to see what is under construction:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0& ... bb25a5d72975&ie=UTF8&z=13

Not labeled on that photograph, in front of the Westin, is Newport Tower VII (480 Washington) which was built in 2003. The Waldo Lofts are also in the image (2006 / 2007 I believe).

Also I think Tower V and VI were completed in 2002, both can just be made out in the photo. And not in the photo is Shore 1&2 and Aqua, 2007, 2008, and 2009 respectively.

Quote:

Journal Square is for now still a central hub with a critical mass of residences and businesses to remain significant for years to come. That distinction, however, is changing rather significantly.

If the current proposals are built out over the next decade or two, the central hub of Jersey City will probably be the Northeast corner of Marin and Columbus, next to the Grove Street PATH station. The density of planned residential buildings, the potential of retail around Grove Street, the access to 33rd Street and WTC PATH trains, relative proximity to the light rail and the Turnpike all point to the blocks around Grove Street as the centralized hub of the city.

Quote:the #OOPS# are you talking about

why do you think jsq is the real downtown hub? there is nothing there but the path station and a bunch small stores....makes no sense.

Quote:

it's because you can't recreate the hub of a city. JSQ is the hub of jc the real 'downtown' in every sense. downtown jc is a literal name because it is cut off by the hills.. there was never anything 'downtown' about it. it was just another neighborhood.

Amenities please.

Quote:

Maybe that's because most of the "small cities" you talk about would fit well within the geography of the downtown.

It's more a stage set facade that's a block or two deep.

That's hardly a "city".

JC has no destinations. There is no 'there' here.

ehhh it's such a lame looking residential skyline though. it lacks that metro area feel of other east coast small cities. JSQ has that potential..

biggest skyline in the state for some time now.

And the World Trade Center is still a hole. Sad. 12 Skyscrapers ( because the Monaco says 2010 ) and nothing downtown NYC

Someone sent me this - and I found it interesting to see how many new skyscrapers have been built since 2001.

Just click the above photo to enlarge it -- Each tower is named and dated.