Two days ago, the Department of Buildings issued a violation for the 110-year old LaGuardia Bathhouse, declaring its walls in danger of collapsing at any moment - following demolition it will be replaced by a turf field. I had passed by this building, situated next to the Little Flower Playground at Madison and Jefferson (about two blocks from where I was born) around the end of November, originally to take photos of the mural which stretches across its entire height at one end. An epic depiction of Puerto Rican history and life, the mural moves from scenes of enslaved Africans led in chains by conquistadors, to more contemporary sites of music, community, or figures like Pedro Albizu Campos (a leader in the Puerto Rican independence movement and namesake of the Campos Houses) and Roberto Clemente. Like the large mural depicting scenes of Jewish life, religious themes, images of the Holocaust, and more which once adorned the recently ...
This is an ongoing documentary project on the neighborhood I was born and raised in, with a particular focus on its current re-development and so-called "revitalization".