Let the party begin!
Mayor Bloomberg’s legal attempt to quash a Chelsea block party – claiming an artist’s plan to paint graffiti on 10 mock subway cars would encourage copycats – was tossed out of Manhattan federal court yesterday.
The mayor, as recently as Friday on his WABC radio show, said the block party would encourage “vandalism.”
But Judge Jed Rakoff didn’t see it that way.
After hearing arguments for nearly an hour, he retreated to his chambers and wrote out an eight-page decision to reinstate a permit granted to artist/entrepreneur Marc Ecko, who will be among 20 artists at the hip-hop-inspired party on West 22nd Street at 10th Avenue tomorrow.
“We know this was worth fighting for,” said Ecko, 32, who runs the hugely successful Marco Ecko Enterprises, which includes a clothing line. “Clearly, the mayor must have been ill-informed. I’ll be there with my daughter on my shoulder.”
The city first tossed out Ecko’s permit to operate the party as an art exhibit. A second application was submitted, requesting status as a commercial event, but that, too, was denied by the city.
(p. 5 in metro and sports extra)