Closing Bell: No Sleep Til Breuckelen
As the Wall Street Journal noted, a prankster has been altering subway signs to say “Breuckelen” rather than “Brooklyn.” The MTA was not amused: This sign appears to have been defaced by vandals, a spokesman for the MTA said in a statement about a sign in the 59th street station. This is a waste of…
As the Wall Street Journal noted, a prankster has been altering subway signs to say “Breuckelen” rather than “Brooklyn.” The MTA was not amused: This sign appears to have been defaced by vandals, a spokesman for the MTA said in a statement about a sign in the 59th street station. This is a waste of NYC transit resources.
Photo by bitchcakes
Sort of torn about this. On the one hand, it may set a precedent for other “alterations”; on the other, is this really that horrible? It’s just that government workers respond robotically; this is kind of cool.
It’s a shame people don’t remember the guerilla mosaic artists of 20 years ago.
Before the MTA started its big tile-improvement campaign (late 80s, if I recall correctly), in which it destroyed a great deal of mosaic needlessly and ruined most of the old black-on-white signage, the subway stations had been deteriorating for some time.
Some enterprising artists actually managed to put in mosaics of their own in the places where the tile had fallen from various subway station walls. You’d find all sorts of interesting things all over the city; there was a little “Lex” in gold mosaic tiles in one of the stations on the #6 line, a bunch of fish and boats on the Second Avenue F station, etc.
The grandest piece was a portrait of Bernhard Goetz, with four prone figures behind him representing the four assailants he’d shot, with a “B” and “G” that stood for both the B and G lines and, of course, Bernhard Goetz. OK, a little inflammatory—but aren’t we constantly being told that art is supposed to be “edgy?” It was, in any event, a monumental piece of mosaic graffiti.
If the TA had had any sense, it would have reached out to these folks to do some of the repair/refurbishment. Instead, they chiseled it all out and covered over the spots.
@dieselfuel222 – Not only is the Broadway G stop pretty crappy, have you ever noticed that it seems to have an omnipresent river running through the station in between the tracks?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the culprits lived in Boswijck. Maybe they wouldn’t mind helping to fix up the Chambers stop either.
I saw it at the Delancey St. stop on the F the other day, and it gave me a chuckle.
I keep wondering when they’re going to get around to fixing up the Chambers St. stop. With some TLC, the tilework could be awesome again.
Oh, you’re all so clever.
They’re simply correcting the spelling. What’s the problem?
Chambers M station is cool… the sign change is not funny, and not clever, it’s just another expense to the riders to fix.
“This is a waste of NYC transit resources.â€
Something the MTA excels at.