A new mural honors Chino Garcia outside the former CHARAS on 9th Street

Photos by Stacie Joy

A new memorial mural honoring longtime Lower East Side activist Carlos "Chino" Garcia has appeared on the Ninth Street side of the former P.S. 64/CHARAS-El Bohio Community Center between Avenue B and Avenue C. 

Artist Carson DeYoung (aka Depsone) finished it late last week. 

Garcia, who died in July at age 80, was a co-founder of CHARAS, the influential community organization that transformed the former school into a neighborhood center for the arts, education, political organizing and other programs. 

His decades of activism also included tenant organizing, affordable housing, community gardens and efforts to preserve neighborhood institutions. 

The mural is a particularly fitting tribute at a building Garcia helped turn into a center of community life — and later fought to return to public use after CHARAS was evicted in 2001...

Meanwhile, there have been new signs of activity at the long-vacant building, with workers on-site and new scaffolding and construction netting in place. Permits indicate exterior repairs and work to make the building safe for future construction, though questions remain about the restoration plans and the longstanding vacate order. 

Owner Aaron Sosnick has agreed to meet with EVG in December to discuss the building's future.

 

Previously on EV Grieve: 

• New signs of activity at the former P.S. 64, but questions remain