Todd Heisler/The New York Times People held a candlelight vigil outside of the 5Pointz building in November.Dear Diary:
I had been dating Billy for a few weeks when he invited me to meet him at 5Pointz in Long Island City, Queens. “You won’t be able to miss it,†he told me. As I rode a Queens-bound No. 7 train past the warehouse for the first time, covered top to bottom in large, colorful murals, I got my first glimpse at an era of New York City that I had missed out on.
Billy let me into the building and we went up to the roof, where he was in the middle of painting a mural bearing his tag: “REPO.†As I sat and watched him paint against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline, he spray-painted my name in smaller letters underneath his own.
In the following months, I met the cast of characters at 5Pointz â€" Meres, the self-proclaimed curator of the building’s artwork; the international tourists who flocked to pose in front of the pieces; and the slinky tabby cat who always seemed to appear when I was there.
I haven’t been back since they painted over the exterior of the warehouse, the first step in tearing the building down and converting it into a series of high-rise apartments. Billy (now just a friend) recently posted a current picture of 5Pointz on Facebook with the following note:
“Just went to peep 5pointz for the first time since the white washing… honestly I don’t feel any shock at all as I was expecting… feels pretty natural considering how many times I rolled out a wall to do a piece… just feels like a bunch of new pieces are going to go up…â€
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