4 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 27, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
5Pointz artists awarded $6.75 million for destroyed work
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Developer Jerry Wolkoff is going to have
to pay millions in damages for destroying
AOC entreats constituents to help increase census participation at E. Elmhurst town hall
BY MAX PARROTT
mparrott@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
At a town hall that Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held on the
2020 census in East Elmhurst on Saturday,
Feb. 22, she hammered home a message
about the decennial population survey:
the stakes are high.
Th e results of the survey will determine
how much of $650 billion in federal
funding gets designated to
New York
for public education, public housing,
roads, bridges and more. It also controls
the number of seats each state gets in
the House of Representatives. If undercounted,
the city’s census bureau warns, it
could lose up to two congressional
seats.
W i t h
the census
offi -
c i a l l y
starting
on March
12, federal
and
city census agencies gathered with
Ocasio-Cortez’s constituents to stress the
public benefi ts of a comprehensive census
count and troubleshoot any questions
ahead of time.
“And undercount will aff ect every
neighborhood adversely for the next 10
years. You get one opportunity every 10
years to get this right and we have to
work together,” said Jeff Behler, the director
of the New York branch of the Federal
Census Bureau.
Th e census is conducted by the U.S.
Census Bureau every 10 years to determine
the entire population of the U.S.
and where each person lives. In March,
the self-response phase of outreach will
begin. Every household in the country
will receive a letter from the Census
Bureau with information about how
to fi ll out the census online. Th is
is the fi rst time ever that the census
will be available online and by
phone.
On May 13, the follow-up phase
will begin, where the census bureau
will deploy staff to door knock on residences
that failed to respond to fi rst
phase. Th is outreach will last until July.
In 2010, Queens had the second lowest
self-response rate of all fi ve boroughs aft er
Brooklyn. Only 61.7 percent of Queens
residents responded during the fi rst phase
of outreach. Th e city’s average was not
much higher: a 61.9 percent self-response
rate.
In her remarks, Ocasio-Cortez personalized
the impacts of the census for
her district.
“We all know Corona is one of the most
crowded school districts in the entire city
and state. One of the contributing reasons
is because this neighborhood is undercounted,”
she said.
Th e congresswoman entreated those
at the town hall to act as ambassadors
to their neighbors by encouraging them
to fi ll it out – especially those of them
who are multilingual. While the phone
and internet self-response census will be
available in 12 non-English languages,
Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that in Jackson
Heights, Corona and Sunnyside there are
more than 200 languages spoken.
NYC Census 2020, an agency organized
by the mayor’s offi ce, has also hired
a host of community groups in Queens to
do outreach on behalf of the census, oft en
with a focus on reaching immigrant or
non-English-speaking communities.
At the outset of the meeting, the agencies
listed Allen A.M.E. Neighborhood
Preservation and Development
Corp., Adhikaar, MinKwon Center for
Community Action, Desis Rising Up and
Moving, Chhaya CDC and Sunnyside
Community Services, among 25 others.
As far as the actual hiring eff orts of
the census bureau itself, Behler said that
recruiting is several thousand ahead of
its goal. As the self-response comes to a
close, the agency will hire in the range of
5,000 to 8,000 staff in Queens depending
on what the self-response rates are.
the 5Pointz graffi ti mecca back in
November 2013 in an eff ort to tear down
the dilapidated warehouse complex so he
could build two luxury residential towers
in Long Island City.
Th e Second Circuit Court of Appeals
upheld Federal Judge Frederick Block’s
$6.75 million judgement against Wolkoff ,
ruling that his whitewashing of the murals
at 5Pointz violated the federal Visual
Artists Rights Act.
“I’m very happy,” 5Pointz Founder and
Curator Jonathan “Meres One” Cohen
said. “I never would have thought that
four federal judges would validate graffi ti
art as legitimate art and that’s what they’ve
done with this landmark ruling. I’m numb
to it still.”
Th e decision sets a precedent for future
aerosol artists in that VARA had never
been used in a case involving graffi ti art.
“Th e statute recognizes that, unlike novelists,
or composers, for example, visual
artists depend on the integrity of the
physical manifestations of their works,”
U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington D. Parker
Jr. wrote in the 32-page ruling on behalf
of the three-judge panel.
Wolkoff , who named his new complex
5Pointz Towers, argued that the temporary
quality of the murals didn’t meet
with VARA standards and that the artists
covered their own works to make way for
new murals.
“Although a work’s short lifespan means
that there will be fewer opportunities for
the work to be viewed and evaluated, the
temporary nature of the art is not a bar to
recognized stature,” Parker wrote.
In 2002, Wolkoff allowed Cohen and
graffi ti artists from around the world to
fi ll the warehouse walls with aerosol art
and before long 5Pointz became a tourist
attraction and epicenter of the New York
City hip-hop scene.
When Judge Block issued his decision
in February 2018 following a three-week
jury trial at Federal District Court in
Brooklyn, he praised the 21 artists who
fi led suit writing that they “conducted
themselves with dignity, maturity, respect,
and at all times within the law,” adding
that their behavior contributed to his
decision to award them signifi cant damages.
“Th e legacy of 5Pointz may be this ruling
and the clear statement that aerosol
art and public art are not disposable. Th e
21 plaintiff s, including myself, believed
in the law and stood up for our rights,
we believed in the value of our art and
we were heard,” Cohen said at the time.
“Th e art adorning 5Pointz is gone and can
never be replaced, the 7 train commute
will never be the same, but Honorable
Judge Block’s judgement is historical for
generations of artists all around the country.
5Pointz art was a true form of free
speech, and this ruling honors this great
American tradition of standing up for
your rights.”
As Wolkoff and his son David prepare
to open the 5Pointz Towers in May, they
also have a big decision to make.
“I don’t know what happens next, that’s
what David and I are contemplating right
now, whether to end this right now or take
it to the Supreme Court and we have 90
days to decide,” Wolkoff said. “Th e worst
part about all this is I still think I’m right
but the whole world thinks I’m wrong.
Yeah, I painted over it, but they painted
over it, too. I guess I’ll just have to live
with it.”
Photo by Bill Parry
5Pointz became a hip hop hotspot before developer Jerry Wolkoff ordered its art whitewashed and
court rules he owes millions in damages.
Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
/WWW.QNS.COM
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