Days after the City of New York revoked Mark Ecko's permit to hold The Getting Up Block Party, the fashion designer is set to announce his plans to sue the city today.

The Getting Up Block Party is free to a public and is set to feature a graffiti art exhibition next Wednesday, August 24^th. Radio host Ron Kuby's law firm, Kuby & Perez, and several reputed graffiti artists are slated to join Ecko during his announcement today at Marc Ecko Enterprises in Manhattan at 2 pm. In July, the city's Community Assistance Unit issued a permit for the event only to revoke it a few days ago.

 

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he doesn't support the exhibit, "Graffiti is just one of those things that destroys our quality of life, and why anybody thinks that it's funny or cute to encourage kids to go do that, I don't know. We have talked to them and asked them to not have a subway car motif to write graffiti. This is not really art or expression. This is - let's be honest about what it is - it's trying to encourage people to do something that's not in anybody's interest."

A letter sent to Ecko said that the permit was for an art exhibition event rather than a commercial event. The event is set to feature ten 48-ft long by 8-ft high replicas of the legendary NYC transit blue-bird subway cars. Graf artists are scheduled to paint the cars. Renowned graffiti artists such as COPE2 and T-Kid are slated to take part in the event as well as other active NYC graf heads.

Ecko has written an open letter to the city in which he responds to Mayor Mike Bloomberg's claims that graffiti is not an art form. In the letter, Ecko also notes that he's been going through all the proper channels to set up this event.

"Unfortunately the spirit of the event, as it was originally conceived and as it has been presented to the appropriate civic groups and government officials since November 2004, seems to have been lost in the haste to stereotype all graffiti-style artists as 'vandals' and to brand this event as a 'promotion of crime,'" Ecko wrote in the letter. "At its core, this is an event designed to celebrate an art form born from the streets of New York over two decades ago as a means of creative self-expression, allowing the public a unique chance to experience the workmanship and skill that go into creating a piece of art fine enough to hang on the walls of any traditional gallery or museum. Upon completion, a 48-foot mural will be donated to The Point, a Bronx-based nonprofit youth development organization, while the remaining nine will be placed throughout the city for public display."

Recently, upon being asked about the forthcoming graffiti event, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered, "Look, there is a fine line here between freedom of expression and going out and encouraging people to hurt this city. Defacing subway