ABC7 reported on Monday that people in Washington Heights are angry because New York City's Department of Transportation (DOT) painted over the murals and graffiti that were in the 191st Street Subway tunnel in an effort to clean it up. Members of the community and their city representative had complained about the condition of the tunnel, which is poorly lit and full of drug users and homeless people looking for shelter. But the neighborhood was proud of the art that was on the walls of the tunnel. Luiggy Gomez, who lives in Washington Heights, told Gothamist that what happened was like a slap in the face to the neighborhood. "They wiped out the past."
The murals were part of a DOT-funded project to improve the look of the tunnel in 2015. Five local artists painted geometric shapes, lush jungle scenes, and positive messages on the 1000-foot-long tunnel. One of the pieces, New York graffiti legend Fernando "Cope2" Carlo Jr.'s Art Is Life, told people to "Follow Your Dreams." Even though local graffiti artists quickly painted over the original murals, the tunnel and the art that decorated it quickly became a cultural landmark and were shown in Lin Manuel Miranda's movie In the Heights. Nira E. Leyva-Gutiérrez, the executive director of the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, which co-sponsored the 2015 project with the DOT, and Carmen De La Rosa, a member of the New York City Council, released a statement in which they criticized the DOT for not being open and involving the community during the renovation project.
The DOT quickly responded with a statement of their own, assuring the community that they "value the importance of public art" and will soon issue a Request for Proposals "that will involve local artists and kick-start a process that will allow us to change the 191st St tunnel." In addition to the DOT's plans to "transform" the tunnel, DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez told New York's NBC4 that the city has "allocated $25 million that we'll be investing in the infrastructure of this tunnel in the next two years."
Selena Mattei