Should Michael Jackson mural ‘beat it’?
BY GABE HERMAN
The East Village mural
of Michael Jackson that
went up last summer
will stay up, according to the
artist who painted it.
The new HBO documentary
about the singer, “Leaving
Neverland,” highlights damning
new sex-abuse allegations
against the late “King of Pop.”
However, a survey of the area
found people mostly supportive
of the mural and Jackson.
Brazilian street artist Eduardo
Kobra put up several murals
around the city over several
months last year, as The
Villager reported.
The works were part of
Kobra’s “Colors of Freedom”
project. They included Mother
Teresa and Gandhi in Chelsea,
a 9/11 fi refi ghter on the Upper
East Side, and a Run-DMC
mural in the East Village.
The Michael Jackson mural
went up in July and is at E. 11
St. and First Ave. It is a splitportrait
of Jackson’s face, with
the left side showing him as
a child during his Jackson 5
days, and the right side depicting
him as an adult.
Jackson faced child sexabuse
allegations going back
decades to when he was still
the biggest pop star in the
world. The HBO documentary
aired March 3 and 4, and
brought the issue back with
detailed descriptions from two
men who claimed they were
sexually abused by Jackson
over several years.
Kobra has decided to keep
the mural up, he recently told
Timeout NY. He said the mural
was not simply a tribute, but
showed Jackson’s transformations
in his life, including black
to white, kid to adult, and natural
to unnatural, he said.
“I was trying to describe
that people sometimes have
to go through so much to be
able to reach their own peace
of mind, and even then, sometimes
doesn’t matter what people
do, they can never reach
that peace,” Kobra said in the
Timeout NY interview.
The muralist also noted
Jackson’s major place and impact
in music history.
“We can’t just erase him from
history,” he said. “These new allegations
can be true or not. It
is not up to me to judge if MJ is
guilty or not. I really hope that
mural can do its part and bring
us to think about it all and how
we, as persons and as a community,
will deal with this new fact
concerning MJ’s life.”
Two visitors from Germany,
standing at the East Village
corner, said they thought the
mural should stay.
“I love it,” said Daniella
Schneider, who noted she has
the same birthday as Michael
Jackson. She said she doesn’t
believe the accusations against
Jackson, and that the mural
enlivens the building and the
area.
Franco Carbone agreed that
the artwork gave soul to the
building, and brought people
together to talk about it. He
said it was good to have a tribute
for Jackson.
“I like the message,” he said.
“He’s the King of Pop.”
Carbone also doesn’t believe
the accusations, and said bad
news gets more attention than
good news, including in the
media.
“It’s better business,” he
said.
A food vendor posted right
beside the mural also didn’t
believe the accusations against
Jackson and said the mural
should stay up.
“Why not? He’s a legend,”
he said. “There’s nobody like
him.”
But another woman thought
the mural should be taken down.
She believed the allegations
against Jackson, and said she
now found it disturbing to see his
oversized image on the wall.
“The mural depicts him
as larger than life,” she said,
“and, in a way, puts him on a
pedestal, which disrespects the
children he hurt and all who
are affected by abuse.”
Artist Kobra, in his recent
statement about the Jackson
mural, put a positive spin on
things.
“Hopefully,” he said, “this
discussion leads us all to the
desire to be a better person every
day.”
PHOTO BY BOB KRASNER
Eduardo Kobra’s split-portrait mural of Michael Jackson
at E. 11th St. and First Ave.
Locals freakin’ over vegan delivery guys
BY GABE HERMAN
In recent months, police have been
cracking down on groups of delivery
people who congregate outside
of the popular vegan restaurant by
Chloe as they wait to pick delivery orders
for apps like Postmates.
At the Sixth Precinct’s Build The
Block meeting last month, Neighborhood
Coordination Offi cers Brian Garcia
and Annalee Simon updated locals
about the situation. Basically, there have
been complaints about some delivery
people blocking the sidewalk, drinking
and smoking outside the popular eatery
on MacDougal St., near Bleecker St.
Simon said that most of the delivery
people worked for Postmates. The app
gets a lot of delivery orders from by
Chloe, so the workers wait there for an
order to come in on their phone. They
can then pick up the order and bicycle
away to make the delivery.
“In the past month, we’ve confi scated
eight bikes on that corner and 15 total,”
Garcia reported at the Feb. 20 meeting.
He said that did not include summonses
— he said they were issuing a lot of
them — along with an increased police
presence to monitor the area.
“It kind of slowed down a bit, they’re
not really there anymore,” Garcia said
of the delivery persons. But it was noted
that the groups might reappear as
the weather warms up. Sure enough,
delivery groups are now starting to be
seen around that corner again in March
as temperatures gradually rise.
Instead of being directly in front of
by Chloe, the popular vegan restaurant
that opened in 2015, the groups now
often gather next door in front of a
vacant space that formerly housed the
Japanese restaurant Okamisan.
Garcia said it’s not illegal for the delivery
workers to stand in front of the
vacant restaurant, as long as they’re not
smoking, drinking or blocking pedestrian
traffi c.
“As long as they’re following the
rules, they can stand there,” he said.
“We don’t want them to, but they can.”
Simon said they reached out to the
delivery companies and got positive
responses from most, with Postmates
being a notable exception. She said that
Grubhub, Seamless, Caviar and Uber
Eats all sent out letters to their delivery
people saying that they must follow
the laws, and that anyone not doing so
would not be able to work for them.
Simon said of Postmates, “They’re
being a little more diffi cult,” but did
not elaborate.
When this newspaper reached out
to Postmates, a spokesperson said the
company’s Trust and Safety team was
aware of the situation and working to
address the problem.
“Nothing is more important to us
than the safety of our community, and
we have zero tolerance for illegal, offensive,
harassing or threatening conduct
from anyone on our platform,” the
Trust and Safety team said in a statement.
“We have provided By Chloe with
a direct escalation line to our Trust &
Safety team and we are conducting further
investigations to proactively detect
any behavior in violation of our policies
taking place on Bleecker Street.”
A local resident at the February
Build The Block meeting said it might
be more effective for community members
to complain directly to Postmates,
instead of just letting the police handle
it. He said that people should tell Postmates
that they won’t use their service
if the problem isn’t addressed.
“I mean, we have a voice in the community,
as well,” the Villager said.
“Sometimes it’s more important for
people to hear from the actual residents.”
“That would defi nitely help,” Simon
said of the idea.
20 March 28, 2019 TVG Schneps Media