I know I have no dog in this fight, but seeing photos of 5 Pointz as it was always gave me shivers.  It was important.  Legalized graffiti is important.  Giving people a hand in creating the landscape they want to live in is important.

The whitewash was inevitable.  ”Progress” is inevitable.  Multimillion dollar developments are inevitable.

5 Pointz couldn’t last forever, and I’m sure it was never meant to.  The property owners have been more than generous in taking such care of it.  And who knows, maybe the new developers will include the graffiti somehow, even as art inside.  But whitewashing the whole thing seems like a preview of things to come; this area will never look like the old New York again.