‘Loisaida Walls’ ready to paint the Con Ed substation

Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy 

As we've documented through the years, the brick walls of the Con Edison substation along Avenue A have long served as a canvas for various tags and squiggles. 

A more organized artistic treatment will have to wait another week. Today's planned community painting day has been postponed because of the nor'easter and is now scheduled for next Saturday, Oct. 3, from noon to 5 p.m.

ArtBridge is bringing 10 street artists to the substation along Avenue A between Fifth Street and Sixth Street for "Loisaida Walls," a project paying homage to the East Village and Lower East Side's role in street art history and development. 

The participating artists are TOOFLY, Andre Trenier, Indie184, Chino BYI, Cekis, Hiphopismyreligion, Jappy Agoncillo, Minha Fofa, Optimo NYC and Ski Mystress Therapy. 

Each artist will work on a section of the Con Ed walls measuring roughly 25 feet by 10 feet. Several are already in progress...

ArtBridge, a nonprofit that produces public art projects across the five boroughs, is organizing the project, which is sponsored by Con Edison.

Coming attractions

An EVG reader tells us that the NE corner of Avenue A and Fifth Street — on the Con Ed substation — will soon be home to a series of murals... The space got prepped today... no word yet on the artists involved. And perhaps positive news for people who are tired of the endless tags along here...

Tuesday's parting shot

Today, outside the Con Ed substation on Fifth Street and Avenue A, there were unconfirmed reports of angels singing. 

For today, after nearly seven months, the last of the street barricades and assorted equipment (the cherry picker moved on yesterday) were removed... and the work on the new transformer has come to a welcome conclusion. (The Sixth Street side was cleared last week.)

Goodbye to the curt security guards who sat in idling vehicles watching parking spaces 24/7, the oil-processing trucks and the random holiday morning buzzsawing. 

And we do not know if the CitiBike docking station will return to the south side of Fifth Street outside the Untitled building.

Marking the 16th day that Sophie's has been blocked by oil tankers for Con Ed work

Today marks the 16th day that Con Ed has parked these loud, smelly oil-processing rigs on Fifth Street at Avenue A... belching a pungent smell into the immediate area and completely blocking the front of Sophie's, the longtime bar at 507 E. Fifth St. (and the reason EVG started)...

A bartender said the trucks are "killing" their business.