Tone Deaf: City Removes Banksy’s Twin Towers Tribute From Fruit Street Sitting Area In Brooklyn Heights

By on October 18, 2013 4:54 pm in Arts and Entertainment, War On Fun

While most of Brooklyn Heights is littered with graffiti from no talent taggers, the city was quick today to remove the Twin Towers tribute at the Fruit Street Sitting Area created by world famous street artist Banksy earlier this week.

It had quickly become a beloved part of the neighborhood with many rushing to take photos of it while pausing to remember those who perished on 9/11/01. However, the Parks Department has a different point of view. After all, we can’t have world famous artists defacing our neighborhood, right? That right is reserved for no talent punks as evidenced by the countless number of meaningless tags in and around Brooklyn Heights.

So with no consideration of this being a new, notable addition to our landmarked district, the Parks Department destroyed real art. Heckuva job fellas!

The NY Post has created a time lapse image of the destruction.

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  • Klezmer O’Brien

    You must be joking. Banksy originals sell for half a million dollars or more.

  • MonroeOrange

    I respectfully disagree Homer…while i do think the picture was a nice tribute and very good skyline (and he clearly is a good artist)…i and many of the people that grew up in the heights, and are great ‘taggers’ and artists in our own rite would have loved the opportunity to tag up there…however, there was always an unspoken code, ‘never tag the brooklyn bridge or any part of the promenade’. And much as i would love to see the trains tagged up again and the walls all over dumbo, and return to the 80’s that era is over.

    What gives Banksy the right to tag in BH, when those of who love this neighborhood and are great artist can’t do it and won’t bc of the love and respect we have for our hood. And yes i get he did it out of respect, but so would have many of the great artist that grew up here and have a very real emotional connection to the towers, promenade and our hood.

    Once again, dont get me wrong, it was a great piece of art, but it is the broken window theory, once you see that, who’s to say a lesser tagger won’t tag next to it…believe me, i know plenty of people who draw killer skylines, and those people draw with the emotion of having lived here, and hung out at UTB and grew up with the towers in our backyard and watched them fall and had loved ones pass on that tragic day. And for all the people who used to hang Under the Bridge (UTB), and chill until the morning sun rose, you know of what i speak……..

  • Heightsman

    It would be funny to see him come back and do it again.

  • Jorale-man

    To me the fundamental issue is this: if the city is going to crack down on Banksy’s work, then they must apply the same scrutiny to all of the lesser graffiti that litters the heights. It’s an odd double standard that they speed over here to clean up Banksy’s artwork but allow scribbles to live for months on mailboxes, parking meters, street signs and sides of buildings. You can’t have it both ways.

  • Than Ball

    I think Banksy is the one who commissioned it to be erased. He never posted a picture of it acknowledging it in any way. I think he paid someone to sandblast it away after abandoning it.

  • Joe A

    They have meds for your condition.

  • Bagel Boy

    Graffiti is graffiti.. Banksy’s high grade street “art” is no exception. I think some elements such as transplants, hipters, yupsters, left wing nuts and others yearn for the days when NY was covered in graffiti. Like it was some kind of storybook time. It wasn’t, the Heights was overrun with druggies, burglars, muggers, seedy skin joints (remember what Pineapple Street and Henry was like 20 years ago). The subways were unusable after dark. Graffiti is not about someone expressing him/herself , its about the “look at me” attitude. Well, I don’t want to see it. We have taxpayer funded museums to enjoy art. I don’t want to see Banksy’s ill timed and ridiculous expressions on “our” promenade. Don’t give him a pass because he invokes 9-11. A lot of other profiteers use 9-11 for the same shameless purposes. Kudos to the city for showing Banksy and others that out of place self promotion wont be tolerated. If Banksy is so concerned for the victims of 9-11, he can seel some his crappy art and donate to some of the hundreds of 9-11 charities out there.

  • BHQueen

    You sound so pissed off at life tax payer…