Neither more nor less

Motorcycle helmets art expressions, evocative of another time, made a Bella Abzug motorcycle helmet...Bella we need you!!!!!!!!!! I got the old Easy Rider style helmet on ebay, I painted the reproduction with Van Gogh like swirls to conjure the spirit and courage of Bella Abzug and I held it in my hands at the 47 East 3rd rally www.47e3.org and the small one is my wild art fantasy that was part of series of paintings and stories....The running numbers on my door are from races I ran including 2 NYC marathons but my running days are over. The Bella Abzug helmet was a crucial expression for me because we really need Bella Abzug and I remember her hats so I combined the memory with my motorcycle fascination which symbols rebellion and freedom of expression. I am leaning against an art work that I believe Janis Joplin would have loved. Next to my wild art is a Janis photo from Woodstock. JJ for Janis Joplin and JJJ for Jim Power and Jesse Jane!!!! For me everything is my art.................
This neighborhood was about artistic expressions, being different and unique which is why Jim's mosaics need preserving because we are looking more like a bad xerox of midtown and a generic shopping mall.
Think of Janis Joplin's passionate voice singing, "Take another little piece of my heart...".
Feels like big pieces...
www.suzannahbtroyartist.com

www.myspace.com/suzannahbtroyartistcom
 

Please check out my blog...fashioned in Bob Arihood like style.
www.suzannahbtroy.blogspot.com
Bob's site and
www.vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com
and now mine are my favorites and of course anything Jim Power and Jesse Jane too!
 

I have taken down all the running numbers on my door including the 2 from running NYC marathons and the 2 from the downtown runs after 9-11 to help lower Manhattan rebound. The other side of the door was an FDNY sticker from a fireman that survived 9-11 by seconds and that is gone.

It is St. Patty's day but for me it is a sad day because of the tragic event -- the newest horror that looked like a terror attack and people are grieving loved ones lost. I am looking back and I am thinking of 9-11. I am so tired and I question how much more of city living I can take but I remain here for now.

20 years of living in one space and packing up is traumatic but it has been 100 fold for 2 major reasons and one was NYU mega dorming St. Ann's to death and to date the USPS has not notified the State of New York as they were legally obligated when selling air space over a historical site. You try to send a letter with out a stamp and it won't go through but this illegal air sale went through. The USPS and NYU to date have not been held accountable and NYU tore down St. Ann's from 1864 that survived everything but NYU's need and greed to build yet another mega dorm as evictions continue to rise and I continue to ask NYU for community outreach resource centers in these mega dorms instead of banks and wine shops or take in stores that are fighting evictions but so far it is only about real estate and zero accountability despite public relations teams saying they are working with the community...

I will always remember the parishoners crying and praying on the street after they were turned out. I watched them and listened to them from my windows.

The endless noise 7 days a week as NYU set a world record mega build of the most hideous mega dorm ever. People city wide complained about all the noise and health concerns from all the dust and what ever was stirred up

The horror of this newest crane tragedy reminds me of the crane condo pictured on this site -- the taxi cab crushed like an accordian and there were plenty of injuries but miraculously people did not die. My view was mega dorms and the crane condo and I will not miss this view...just the front line mosaic of good people that returned the love and support and it meant everything you came and helped me when I asked for your help with no conditions or agendas...that is what makes this a village, what makes this a city and not one big generic mega mall with mega dorms.



This latest crane tragedy and the infrastructure horror by grand central are 2 tragedies that looked like terror attacks and it is my angry and sad feeling this could have been prevented if we put safety before this tsunami way too rapid development. Too many free passes to supersize, architects self certifying, so many people doing what ever because they knew they could and the city let a lot of this go on 7 days a week.

The city just pushed the mega development knowing they could never monitor such a tsunami of development.

Washington Square Park is another unwanted multi-million dollar waste and sadly parks in poor neighborhoods could use the money for improvements but NYU is the no. 1 real estate magnate and the mayor's administration caters to NYU. Nothing could beautify the park with NYU's hideous student center and the bobst library...the only library to install a suicide barrier.



I long to move and never set foot in the place I called my home of 20 years for reasons that are very traumatic and this is just some of it.

The running numbers are happy memories.

I just feel so badly for the people that has suffered the push out of gentrification, that have no health insurance, the people missing teeth, the people who have no homes, the people that have asked for help over and over...I know i did and I was mocked for it and it the one place I should never have been treated so...I feel sorry for the people trying to raise families with loud rowdy college kids crammed in to the apt next to them or the 5 NYU kids in the basement that stand out side people's window to get their cel phones to work at late hours not realizing the families and small kids are trying to sleep.



The mayor and mega millionaire socialite city planner and their good friend John Sexton would have happily supplied buses trains and trolleys to move us out. We are an inconvenient truth.
Our existence is inconvenient.

NYU does not even need to abuse eminent domain to continue their massive take over and push out of communities where ever they have housing yet they used Broadway and Lafayette as their parking lot for their trolleys and buses when they have plenty of private property. If they want to go green instead of being only about green $$$$ they need to get rid of as many of the buses and trolleys which congest our streets and mostly are half empty.

In theory we are a democracy but there are plenty that do not want our communities concerns represented. The people who are happy to see me go are people that want my voice silenced and it is obvious why.

I will continue helping my community and you will see me. I am for now still an owner and now wait for closing time...a closed chapter. I long to close the door on this painful chapter and it should never have been but so many events these days evoke this response in me. 9-11 and post 9-11 evoke disbelief...this is not the New York City I know but yet their is so much richness -- the real characters, the people that do Olympic giving to help, even baddies that step up and do good -- the city give us all opportunities every day to be each other's pinch hitting angels and the beautiful old historic buildings...the trees that endure...the gardens that people work so hard to keep going...so much richness that endures...



I remember I spoke up to a packed house at the City Council Task Force Meeting on DOB and I got rousing applauds from the people. I talked about the fact too many construction workers had died and that was Dec 2006. I talked this tsunami of development and St. Ann's, I talked about infrastructure because all the rapid development above ground is directly related to what goes on below. What doesn't get covered in the news here in the East Village, Lower East Side are manhole covers keep exploding, we have gas leaks, water main breaks, sewage sink holes and I am sure this is city wide and it also relates to evictions....
buy Town Sty town, bye bye, affordable housing oxymoron...
the big mega development push is all part of it and DOB could not keep up and I am not sure Con Ed can keep up...how many deaths post 9-11 from infrastructure related issues? How many from construction and scaffolding?

The Deutche Bank toxic waste dump should never have been and Firemen Bobby Beddia and Joseph Graffagino would be alive today if the take down of the building had come down as fast as St. Ann's. If only NYU had wanted to build a mega dorm there the toxic waste dump would never have been a death trap to take 2 more of NYC's firemen in the largest loss of firemen in our Nation's history. I feel 9-11 took them -- it was just slow motion and they should be included on the memorial.

I remember hearing about the standpipe and coming home to my home of 20 years. Traumatic. So many people grieving loved ones...

It was all too rapid this tsunami of over the top community crushing development and more budget cuts are to come which doesn't make sense...dollars and cents...just so wrong.

If the mayor had showed me what he intended for my neighborhood -- the hideous make over like a bad plastic surgery reality tv show I would not have voted for him.



This tragedy again underscored the role of rescue workers. You would think NYC's would be the highest paid since they have been front line for 2 terrorist attacks and recently the infrastructure break and crane tragedy that looked like terror attacks.

To date the mayor denies the FDNY, NYPD, PAPD and EMS their rank at the memorial.. This was the largest loss of rescue workers in our City's and Nation's history.

Globally the world watched 9-11 but this loss-- a historical fact of history has been made invisible all these years to millions of visitors.

There are two major reasons I am leaving and one is NYU mega dorming St. Ann's to death and another traumatic event not mentioned here.

I can't wait for this to be a memory. I do love the picture of the door and I look forward to closing this door forever and never return.

I love my village of diverse people that make up the mosaic but I never want to be stifled by NYU mega dorms and banks and bars.

It is traumatic to move after 20 years in one place but it is even more so because....
because.

I love my community.
I have my poem in a hexagon in Tompkins Square Park that is a love letter to my neighborhood.

i will continue to help my community because it is what I do. I continue to demand NYU give us community outreach resource centers in every mega dorm and student housing center including he store front that says NYU student housing.

If anyone reading this see Karl, tell him I say hello. I will see you all soon.

Moving is like a death but in death there is peace so I am happy to close this door in the picture forever and never return. The door is closed.

I am looking forward to opening new doors and thanks to the people that walked through the door picture here one last time with me.

Thanks and gratitude.
 

The motorcycle in the forefront with the yellow paint stick figure and the Mae West like stickers was stolen so if anyone sees it can you ask whom ever to return it.

It was a traumatic time so I have no memory of giving this helmet away although I gave a lot away and through out even more.

I am pretty sure this helmet was stolen.

Thank you.
Suzannah
 

I found the motorcycle helmet and a 9-11 NYPD memorial hat from their museum...it was like a scene out of a movie...I still have not and will most likely never unpack. I opened a closet door looking for a top and my motorcycle jacket fellow out, than my vase with my paint brushes fell freeing all my paintbrushes and I took apart a bag hoping it was in there...and there it was.

Now I need to find the rings that are missing...either I hid them from myself, they are lost or were stolen...