Interesting thought. I'd disagree only because I saw a video[0] where NY residents are not only threatening to destroy these art installs but charging people that want to experience it.
Can you blame them? This is East New York we're talking about - one of the poorest, most violent neighborhoods in the country. This isn't Midtown Manhattan or Greenwich Village - this is a neighborhood that is usually discussed only in terms of fear and derision.
And now that Banksy has "blessed" it with one of his pieces, suddenly people who scoffed at the idea of ever stepping foot in ENY are arriving in droves.
Think about that for a second: people who look down on you, who do everything they can to "contain" the effects of your neighborhood, are now tourists. Not only are they tourists, they are tourists visiting in worship of a figure who has appropriated one of the primary cultural elements of poor urban areas and made it aesthetically and thematically palatable to the wealthy.
that's what all tags in nyc look like. and if you see the more 3 dimensional pieces from this set, they don't have a fraction of the self awareness that it would take to make a statement like that
