Crown Heights' 73-99 Empire Boulevard Erased for Luxury Housing

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Photo courtesy of NYC Municipal Services/1940s.nyc From Mack Trucks to Apartments: A Century on Empire Boulevard For most of the twentieth century, the block at 73-99 Empire Boulevard in Crown Heights handled the heavy work of the city. Trucks came in for service. Tires were swapped out. Parts were stocked and sold. The buildings on this stretch of Brooklyn were built for vehicles, and for about sixty years, that's exactly what they served. The site directly neighbors the much taller Ebbets Field Apartment complex, which is the housing that replaced the ballpark. By 2025, both were rubble. By September 2026, the foundation of a 13-story apartment building was going in. A hundred years of industrial and automotive history on a single block, cleared in a matter of months. The main building at 73-99 Empire Boulevard went up in 1925 and opened as a Mack Truck auto service facility. At 29,000 square feet, it was built for the scale of commercial vehicle work: bay doors, floor drains, th...
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The Zexor Piece That Defied the Buff




I'll be honest: I wasn't sure how this post would fit into the broader theme of my website. But over the years, I've stumbled across so much incredible work by graffiti artists that it felt wrong not to share it. And this Zexor roller tribute? It demanded attention. Bold, unapologetic, and impossible to ignore, it was the kind of piece that stops you mid-step and forces you to look.


What makes this one especially remarkable is that it's still standing. The small park where it lives has since been renovated and reopened to the general public, and somehow, the NYC Parks Department didn't paint over it during the process. They left it right where it was. That decision, whether intentional or simply overlooked, gives this modest little park a character that most others in the city can only dream of. It stands out. It has a voice. And that voice belongs to Zexor.















I think about moments like these more often than you'd expect. There's one in particular that still nags at me. I was driving toward JFK Airport, heading under an overpass bridge, when I spotted a Zexor tribute painting right under the overpass. It was alive, finished, and raw. I should have pulled over. I should have grabbed a quick photo before the city wiped it clean. But I didn't. And sure enough, it was buffed not long after. If you know anything about the roads leading to New York's largest international airport, you know the city does not play around when it comes to graffiti along that stretch. Anything that goes up comes down fast.


That missed moment taught me something. When you see something worth capturing, you stop. You document it. Because in the world of graffiti, nothing is promised to last.


So consider this a preview of what's to come. There will be more posts about graffiti in the near future, pieces I've encountered up close and personal in places you might not expect. I've spent years admiring this art form in person, from tucked-away underpasses to forgotten walls in industrial corridors, and I'm looking forward to finally sharing more of it here. I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I have.

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