Fashion company sues New York over graffiti party
Posted on: Friday, 19 August 2005, 19:12 CDT
By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fashion company Ecko Unlimited sued New York City and Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday after the city barred the company from holding a street party featuring artists spray-painting graffiti on replicas of subway cars.
Officials initially approved the event, then yanked the permit when it drew Bloomberg's ire and sparked fears that the mock vandalism might lead to more graffiti on real subway cars.
Designer Mark Ecko, a former graffiti artist and founder of Ecko Unlimited, an urban design label based in New York, seeks to block off a Manhattan street for the party and art exhibit on August 24.
Ecko, which says its total investment could run close to $190,000, has sued to get the permit reinstated. But the mayor says the party would send a terrible message.
"When you're encouraging vandalism by having the canvas be a subway car, that's where I think the city should draw the line," he said on his weekly radio show on Friday.
At a hearing on Friday, city attorney Paula van Meter told U.S. District Judge Jed Rankoff that officials were opposed not to graffiti as an art form but to celebrating a criminal act.
The judge questioned the city's argument, suggesting that banning the representation of a criminal act such as graffiti might be the same as banning a play about gang warfare.
"But you wouldn't ban 'West Side Story'?" he asked, referring to the hit musical about feuding gangs set in the city in the 1950s.
Another hearing was set for Monday.
Source: REUTERS
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