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BULLET SPACE

On a Tour of Former Squats, Trash Artists and Cat-Poo Painters

A couple of weeks ago, the founders of the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space told The Local they had started hosting “spontaneous tours” of squats and community gardens. This past weekend, we joined just such a tour, as longtime squatter activist Frank Morales took visitors on a winding, nearly three-hour journey through the interiors of four urban homesteads.

Standing outside C-Squat, where MoRUS is to be housed, Mr. Morales described homelessness as “the consequence of state repression.”

“That was the point of entry for our taking buildings – to create communities of self defense, to defend against being forcibly moved into the shelter system,” he said.

Homesteaders recalled the raucous days of the late 1980s, when squatters controlled as many as two dozen East Village and Lower East Side buildings. Read more…


The Day | Trane Rescheduled

Endless summerScott Lynch

Good morning, East Village.

André Balazs’s takeover of the Cooper Square Hotel isn’t the only news today.

DNAinfo has more on the rape that occurred on East Eighth Street Saturday morning. The victim’s attacker is described as “choking her so viciously that she lost consciousness.”

Elsewhere in Alphabet City, Off the Grid takes note of the Bullet Space gallery at 292 East Third Street – one of eleven buildings (this one dating back to 1867) that the city turned over to squatters for $1 each. Read more…