8 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 13, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM 5/4/17 5/4/17 5/4/17 5/4/17 SPRING INTO SAVINGS! Encore Premium Photo courtesy of Flickr/iamNigelMorris VARILUX PROGRESSIVE LENSES $169 (No-Line Bifocals) w/metal frame.Select frames with clear plastic no-line lenses +/- 4 sph, 2 cyl. Not valid with any other offers, sales, vision plan packages. Must present prior to purchase. Offer valid at location only. Some restrictions apply see store for details. Offer ends 5/4/17 QC Dozens of Citi Bike docks Astoria Th e Department of Transportation (DOT) released a map last week outlining more than 40 locations for new Citi Bike stations in Astoria. Stations will be located along a radius spanning Ditmars Boulevard, Steinway Street, 44th Street, Northern Boulevard and 35th Avenue. Th e map also includes additional stations in Long Island City that are planned to go up this summer. DOT held several community planning meetings to ask for input from Astoria residents and is now collecting feedback on the map and will release a map with fi nalized locations in early spring or summer. Implementation is set to begin late summer, a DOT spokesperson said. Stations are planned for heavily traffi cked areas such as Astoria Park, Noguchi Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park and the Museum of the Moving Image. Th ere are also stations planned for Astoria Houses and Ravenswood Houses that will be coordinated with the New York City Housing Authority. Visit www.nyc.gov/dot to help the agency make fi nal decisions about Citi Bike stations. Angela Matua City starts controversial Corona street fi x A Department of Transportation (DOT) plan to transform 111th Street in Corona is moving ahead months sooner than expected. On April 10, the agency began work to pedestrian crossings, add new parking spaces and install a two-way bicycle lane. Th e plan was fi rst proposed in 2015 but was met with resistance from Community Board 4. At their most recent meeting, the board moved to table a vote on whether to implement the most recent plan until a later time. But at a Corona town hall meeting in March, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city would go ahead with the plan despite no vote from the board. He added that the agency would begin implementing the changes in the summer, but DOT announced on April 5 that those changes would start much earlier. Angela Matua 5Pointz artists can sue developer who erased LIC graffi ti BY ANGELA MATUA [email protected] @AngelaMatua Th e artists who had covered 5Pointz in Long Island City in colorful graffi ti scored a major victory on March 31 when a Brooklyn judge ruled that they could sue the developers for painting over their work without providing them advance notice. Artists had been using the building at 45-46 Davis St. in Long Island City as a canvas since 1993 and in 2002 artist Meres One helped turn the space into a graffi ti mecca. In 2013, developer G&M Realty announced that the space would become two high-rise apartment buildings. Almost immediately, artists began taking steps to try to save the building and preserve their artwork. Th ey held a rally at the space aft er a judge issued a ruling against a request of preliminary injunction looking to protect the aerosol art. In 2015, more than a dozen artists fi led a lawsuit against the Wolkoff family, which owns G&M Realty, claiming that the property’s owner committed an illegal act by painting over their work without giving them enough warning to take it down and save it. Th ey evoked the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, which states that protections against destruction of works are aff orded to authors who create art of “recognized stature.” Brooklyn Judge Frederic Block, as Artsnet fi rst reported, ruled that the case can proceed in front of a jury that will decide if the artists should receive monetary damages. Artists will try to persuade the jury by bringing in artists, museum professionals, art critics and any information that can prove the art fi ts the “recognized stature” description. Th e online outlet Artsy believes that the artists will not have a hard time making their case, especially in front of a Brooklyn jury that may have witnessed gentrifi cation like this in its own borough. “Th e court’s order denying dismissal of our client’s claims is a groundbreaking decision for aerosol artists around the country,” Eric Down of Eisenberg & Down, the fi rm that is representing the artists, told Artsnet. “Th e message is that if you destroy art protected by federal law, you will be held responsible for your actions … We are confi dent that at trial both the artists and their work will be determined to be of recognized stature.” Th e property owner, on the other hand, will make the case that since the graffi ti artists had been continually painting over the existing graffi ti up until the whitewashing of the building, the art was never expected to last. Jerry Wolkoff of G&M Realty told the outlet that the artists “themselves went over their paintings for 20-some-odd years.” “Th e paintings were never intended to be permanent,” he added. “Th at’s street art. Th e beauty of it is that it changed.” A judge has allowed a lawsuit to proceed that could grant monetary damages to 5Pointz artists.
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