{"id":1044,"date":"2006-05-04T07:47:08","date_gmt":"2006-05-04T15:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2006\/05\/lodged_like_a_piece_of_dirt_in_the_eye_of_the_beholder.html"},"modified":"2006-05-04T07:47:08","modified_gmt":"2006-05-04T15:47:08","slug":"lodged_like_a_p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/05\/lodged_like_a_p.html","title":{"rendered":"Lodged Like A Piece Of Dirt In The Eye Of The Beholder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grandstanding politican or co-optative businessman? Co-optative businessman or grandstanding politician? They’re both crazy<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The graffiti grudge match between Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. and hip-hop designer\/entrepreneur Marc Ecko has a long history.<\/p>\n

The two have been clashing over the pros and cons of graffiti art since last August, when Vallone tried — and failed — to squelch a Chelsea street party organized by Ecko that featured graffiti artists tagging mock subway cars.<\/p>\n

This week, Ecko won a preliminary court skirmish involving an anti-graffiti law that Vallone championed.<\/p>\n

A Manhattan federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against a provision barring people age 18 to 20 from possessing spray paint or broad-tipped markers. The ruling is being appealed.<\/p>\n

Ecko instigated and is financing the suit, which names the city, Mayor Bloomberg and Vallone as defendants.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Vallone said that Ecko — who went from spray-painting T-shirts to becoming a megamerchandiser of video games and hip-hop fashion — is posing as a freedom-of-speech champion to promote his merchandise.<\/p>\n

“He’s not defending free speech; he’s trying to sell his games and clothing,” Vallone huffed. “It’s a big scam.”<\/p>\n

[Ecko’s lawyer Daniel] Perez countered, “If anybody knows a thing or two about getting headlines, it’s Peter Vallone. He’s the son of a political titan . . . and he’s got bigger things in mind than being in the Council.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grandstanding politican or co-optative businessman? Co-optative businessman or grandstanding politician? They’re both crazy: The graffiti grudge match between Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. and hip-hop designer\/entrepreneur Marc Ecko has a long history. The two have been clashing over the pros and cons of graffiti art since last August, when Vallone tried — and failed — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everyone_is_to_blame_here"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}