New 5Pointz Landlord Insists He Owns Graffiti Mecca's Name
It was bad enough to see the historic Manhattan graffiti mecca 5Pointz get whitewashed and then demolished earlier this year to clear the way for new condos. Now the lot's landlord, Jerry Wolkoff, is trying to use the name for the condos he's building there.
From the Huffington Post:
The move makes one more bullet point in a list of grievances for the key artists and activists associated with 5Pointz, for whom Wolkoff became an enemy after his dramatic overnight whitewashing. One, Marie Cecile Flageul, acted as the group's press liaison when plans were underway to sway the city to preserve the graffiti-smothered building. Speaking to a reporter this week, Flageul accused Wolkoff of trying to "bank off our name." She called the name-grab "ironic," asserting that "the same corporation which single-handedly destroyed all the artwork known as 5Pointz" is "trying to capitalize" on its cache.
Many of the city's legendary graffiti writers attribute the name to Jason "Meres One" Cohen, a street artist who curated the site back in the '80s. The two new condo buildings will be part of a $400 million redevelopment plan, which Wolkoff promises will recapture some of its predecessor's mystique, with an exterior tagging wall and artist studios inside the building. People "don't believe that I'm going to bring them back," he told the Huffington Post. "But they will be back."