Naomy

I live on the 13th floor of a downtown highrise. This is the view from my balcony today.

This weird abandoned building has been empty since well-before I moved here. It was built in 1972 to be a Holiday Inn, which wasn’t particularly successful (ironically, there is a highrise Holiday Inn a few blocks east of this hulk), later sold to the Days Inn hotel chain, then in 1993 it was sold to the nonprofit of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to be a center for Transcendental Meditation. They never succeeded in getting the TM center running, and in 1998, the building was officially condemned. No one can occupy it. I heard the exterior cladding was starting to fall off, so the owner was required to remove it all, which is why it is now a fully transparent building.

When I first moved into my apartment, the exterior of the old Days Inn was a vast canvas for daredevil graffiti artists. I enjoyed the obscure and ever-changing messages, but I know my neighbors did not. They felt a degree of menace, like the city was dangerous. I understand, but part of the logic of the broken windows theory is that damaged property gives license to other bad behavior is that the property in question wasn’t already a total ruin to start with.

And people were reasonably worried that someone might die painting their name on the side of this building. I think the world needs teenage daredevils to a certain extent, but I don’t want them to plummet to their deaths drawing graffiti.

Eventually, the property owners put more effort into making it difficult to sneak into the building. Not only are all entrances boarded up, but they have additional bands of metal strapped to the boards to keep would-be vandals out. The exterior has been free of graffiti for about a year. But this morning I noticed the above orange and yellow tribute to “Naomy”. Someone got past the barriers with spraycan in hand. A somewhat ambiguous message was painted some 20 floors above ground level over five floors. Is it a tribute to Naomy or a signature by Naomy, shouting about her existence to the world?

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