Sanna Chu ArtUp Murals on East Fourth at Bowery

The neighborhood’s cultural district is about to lose some of its color.

With water-main repairs on Cooper Square just about done, the construction containers that were being used as canvases on East Fourth Street are not long for this world.

“The containers are still needed while the final touches are completed on the project; they should be removed by the end of January,” said a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Design and Construction.

Fourth Arts Block and No Longer Empty first jazzed up the containers with a Skullphone painting in September of last year, and works by H. Veng Smith and other artists followed.

Their disappearance isn’t the only unfortunate byproduct of the construction project’s final phase: a reader commenting on our post about an accident at East Seventh Street noted that crossing Cooper Square has become a harrowing experience.

This is an extremely dangerous crossing area, with the confusion of crossing islands. While the construction was going on, a crosswalk with signals was installed at 6th Street and Cooper, which made crossing safer and also forced vehicles to slow down. Why was this crosswalk removed? There isn’t even a stop-sign there. Now vehicles blaze through that intersection, and even make the turn onto 6th street at high speed without a pause, making crossing 6th street a hazard as well.

I thought this entire area was supposed to be turned into a pedestrian plaza and park anyway? When will that happen? I hope soon. Right now this street feels like a game of Frogger.

— St Mark