This may be one of the last vestiges of the Harrison that was. I almost missed getting this picture, I didn't think this would be the first building they would take down. It's probably my favorite train-side graffito. "False" is an omnipresent artist, we see his (and why do I assume it is a he???) signature up and down the Northeast Corridor tracks in NJ. But this time it's different, and likely one of his older works (I'm guessing). The thing I like about it is the "R" at the end, which is actually a dancer, or perhaps a street dude wielding nunchucks. Unfortunately, the topmost part of the dancer is already gone in this picture, taken yesterday morning. Arms formed the top of the "R"; ok, maybe arms with nunchucks, I can get behind that interpretation, with a ball in the center representing his head.
And why, you ask, is the building coming down? So they can make space for the new multi-million dollar PATH station which is going to bring new life or something to the blighted former industrial town. A new station which, by the way, noone can afford to build, the town is pretty much bankrupt, but it's going to get built anyhow. Part of the renovation of the entire rust belt town, which began with Red Bull Stadium and will end who knows where.
So then we will have another overpriced bedroom community attached to NYC.
When I was a kid growing up in this area, people used to make things in Harrison. No more. Now they sleep there. If they are able to sleep.
My elementary school is a few blocks from this former factory. The Annie bridge is a few more blocks away. I used to take the PATH to college. Now I try not to take the PATH, it's kind of like standing in a sardine can.
Progress. Bah, humbug.
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