UPDATE: City Finally Removes Abandoned Car That Anonymous Greenpointer Turned into Art Statement

By Julianne Cuba
Aug 21, 2019

An abandoned car turned art project on Huron Street. Photo: Julianne Cuba.

An abandoned car is an eyesore — unless it’s art!

A Greenpoint street artist got so fed up with an abandoned car parked on a local street that she turned the decaying chunk of metal into a statement — directed at the city for failing to do its job.

The artist, who runs the blog New York Shitty, told Streetsblog that she just wants the city to come haul away the eyesore, which had been parked without any wheels in front of a laundromat on Huron Street for at least a month before it was finally later removed by the Department of Sanitation after an earlier version of this story was posted.

“Blast it on the Internet and shame the city into doing its damned job,” the artist said.

But if neither the NYPD — which tickets and is responsible for removing illegally parked cars, or so it claims— or the Department of Sanitation — which is responsible for towing derelict cars such as ones with no plates — are capable of doing their jobs, then the eyesore should at least be turned into an art project.

“When is a stripped, abandoned car that’s been left on the street for over a month not a stripped, abandoned car that’s been left on the street for over a month?” the blogger wrote. “When it is called art!”

The woman behind New York Shitty emblazoned the graffiti-filled car with a plaque similar to ones found next to actual sculptures and paintings in museums.

“NYPD & Unknown Artists, Two Tired, 2019. Mixed Media. Gifted to the Greenpoint community courtesy of unknown benefactor, apathy and chronic ineptitude,” the caption says.

One woman turned this abandoned car into art. Photo: Julianne Cuba.

Neither New York’s Finest or New York’s Strongest have the best track record of fulfilling their duties of removing abandoned cars from the street, whether they have license plates on them or not.

Streetsblog documented back in April how the NYPD doesn’t actually respond to illegally parked cars to remove or ticket them, despite claiming it does.

DSNY said it removed the vehicle Wednesday morning, after Streetsblog’s initial story had been posted. A spokeswoman said the agency tried twice before to remove the car but on the first attempt it was not at the location and on the second attempt, the owner had appeared and claimed it.