Neither more nor less

Peter Missing of the former East Village group Missing Foundation is back in the USA for a few days . Peter whose "the Party is Over" up-side-down wine glass image can still be found on the walls and sidewalks of the East village, is now living in Hamburg.

I ran into Peter today in Tompkins Square Park where he was sitting in the low sun of the afternoon before spring begins .The last time I saw Peter things were not good for him : he had no money, no job and no place to live and it was very cold living on the street .He was painting paintings and trying to sell them on avenue A . He left New York last winter or early spring with the help of friends and went back to Germany where he had been living since leaving NYC a few years earlier .

Today unlike when I saw him last Peter had some money and a place to live :he has work as a set designer in Hamburg and a place to live along the banks of the Elbe that he can actually afford .

Peter is a New Yorker by birth having been born in the Bronx and still has family there . Like so many others Peter was forced out of this town because there was no place for him that he could afford . He could not earn enough here to pay the typical confiscatory rent but in Germany as a foriegner he has found a place to live that does not require that he work three jobs to pay the rent .The job that he has as a set designer pays well enough that he has time and money to live his life .Peter is also respected as an artist with some stature in the world ,something that he could not find in his home town . Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned here for Mr. Bloomberg , Mr. Doctoroff and Ms. Burden.

www.petermissing.com for more on Peter Missing