I realize there are a lot of variables that factor into this question (brand, salary, title, personality of coworkers, company vision and leadership) and that we all value different things. But I’m interested in other perspectives from designers working in the industry.

What do you value most: the work itself, the salary, the team, the awards and industry recognition, or work-life balance? What are the best companies to work for as an interactive designer in NYC?

Check out these videos:
1. “The Tears and Music of Love” – Deerhoof
2. “My Heart” - Wildbirds & Peacedrums
3. “Lately I Havent Been Feeling Well” – Serengeti & Polyphonic

Deitch Projects presented it’s first annual ART PARADE, an artist parade that took place Saturday evening, September 10, on Grand Street between Crosby and Wooster beginning at 4pm. Artists, performers and designers were invited to create floats, placards, spectacles and street performances. In addition to invited artists there was also an open call for parade projects. The Parade included 650 participants, showcasing over 60 projects and attracted over 3,000 spectators.

Check out my photos of the ART PARADE here.

“The historical account provided by ‘Rights and Wrongs at the RNC’ is particularly important since the NYPD has defended all of its actions during the Convention and has insisted that it made no mistakes,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU. “The performance of police was decidedly a mixed one. While hundreds of thousands of people were able to make their voices heard, the right to protest was severely undermined by the mass arrests of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators and bystanders, the pervasive surveillance of lawful demonstrators, and the illegal fingerprinting and prolonged detention of nearly 1,500 people charged with mostly minor offenses. This compromised their Constitutional right to protest.”

Among the recommendations from ‘Rights and Wrongs’ is that the City establish an agency independent of the NYPD to oversee the planning and management of large demonstrations, with the NYPD remaining part of the planning — but with a focus on law enforcement. ‘Rights and Wrongs’ also calls for an end to the indiscriminate tactics by police that sweep up lawful protesters and innocent bystanders; and for an end to the practice of fingerprinting those arrested for minor offenses. The report also calls on the NYPD not to detain people arrested for minor offenses for excessive periods of time and for arraignment; and to ensure that any holding facilities for arrestees are open to public inspection by appropriate government officials, advocates and members of the press.

The 64-page ‘Rights and Wrongs’ documents the important events in the months leading up to, during and after of the Convention. In a city with a long history of fervent protest activity, the Convention presented a crucial test of our commitment to the right to free speech and dissent. Although demonstrations were peaceful, police arrested more than 1,800 people — the largest number of such arrests at a national convention. More than 90 percent of those arrests have since been dismissed or ended in acquittals.

Among the policing deficiencies cited by the NYCLU report are:
The indiscriminate mass arrests by the police of bystanders and peaceful protesters, such as the arrest of 227 demonstrators soon after their anti-war march began on August 31st. On October 6th, the Manhattan District Attorney threw out those arrests at the request of the NYCLU.
Detention of protesters for excessively long periods of time in hazardous conditions such as Pier 57, where hundreds of people were held on mostly minor offenses under filthy conditions and often without access to legal assistance or their loved ones. Two-thirds of those arrested who filed complaints with the NYCLU were held for longer than 24 hours; 40 percent were detained for longer than 36 hours — all mostly for minor offenses.

The routine fingerprinting of people charged with minor offenses which is not allowed under New York law. This practice raised concerns about whether the NYPD was seeking to build a database of the fingerprints of political activists.
“In an effort to maintain tight control over protest activity, the NYPD too often lost sight of the distinction between lawful and unlawful conduct,” said Christopher Dunn, Associate Legal Director of the NYCLU. “Despite dire predictions that the Convention would be the target of violence or even terrorism, the demonstrations were peaceful.”

In the aftermath of the Convention, the NYCLU filed three federal lawsuits against the NYPD, challenging the mass arrests and detention tactics as well as the fingerprinting of those arrested at the Convention. The NYPD has since announced that it has destroyed all fingerprints. The NYCLU lawsuits are pending in court.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that the Republican National Convention arrests will be investigated:

The Justice Department will investigate claims that the police violated citizens’ civil rights in making arrests during the Republican National Convention last year. Responding to a request from the ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman John Conyers Jr., the Justice Department said in June that it would investigate his allegation that the police engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional conduct. The police arrested 1,806 people during the convention, and in most cases the charges were dismissed or the defendants acquitted. Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said lawful dissent had been accommodated.(NYT)

… Critical Mass is a peaceful bicycle event held on the last Friday of every month in cities across the world. In NYC cyclists meet at Union Square and ride together in mass numbers throughout the city in an effort to promote riding bicycles (rather than driving cars). In the past if police were involved in the ride it was to act as escorts. However, because this past Friday’s Critical Mass fell during the Republican National Convention, there was a heavy police presence from the start…

I met up with some friends at Union Square after work. It was hard to get a good sense of how many cyclists were there because the crowd stretched all the way around the square and a farmers market took up a good part of the north side of the square. There were many police present and there was a police blimp cleverly disguised as a “FUJIFILM” blimp. Once it got underway, the ride was peaceful and positive. Many people on the sidwalks cheered us on as we rode through the city streets and then through Times Square. Everything was cool until we reached 7th ave and 34th st. 7th ave was completely blocked off by police in riot gear. The police were directing everyone to go down 34th st. Many cyclists had already turned onto 34th st but as I got near the intersection traffic slowed to a standstill.

Suddenly rows of cops in full riot gear rushed us. I turned to ride away but a cop yanked me off my bike and I stopped moving. I was handcuffed with plastic handcuffs (that are a lot tighter than I would have thought) as police threw my bike to the ground and stepped on it. I repeatedly asked if I was being arrested and what the charge was. The police refused to answer me or even make eye contact. Finally one said “disorderly conduct.”

They took us to a prearranged area with cement barricades somewhere nearby on 7th ave. There were people with the national lawyers guild who took our names and called them in to get them on record. There were also lots of indymedia people, corporate media people, and people with handheld cameras documenting the arrests. One guy who I met later was an indymedia videographer who was arrested as he was filming the arrests.

They loaded us up on a city bus with our bikes and took us to a facility on the Chelsea piers that was, as we were told, specifically for the convention week to hold protestors. While on the bus I managed to call a few people on my cell phone to tell them where I was but because I was handcuffed I couldn’t hear if they responded.
What we saw of the facility was a huge garage-type room with tons of chainlink fence pens and barbed wire. I asked an officer how long I would be held and he said “they’ll probably just hold you for a few hours and give you a ticket.” After having our pictures taken with our bikes we were put in one of the holding pens. The pen had two gates: the first led into an area where there were porta-potties, and the next gate led to the area where we were actually held. The floor was covered with dirt, gasoline and other chemicals and there were a few benches. However the pen quickly filled up as more arrests came in and it became so crowded people who wanted to lie down on the floor couldn’t lie down fully. Many people developed chemical burns on their arms and legs from trying to sleep on the floor.

While in the first holding pen everyone assumed that when they called a name, the person was ticketed and then released. After about 2 hours my name was called and I filled out paperwork for the return of my property. I then saw that everyone I thought was released was actually just in other pens across the room. Ironically the only person I saw released directly from the Chelsea piers facility was a guy who had pot in his backpack at the time of his arrest. He was charged with a minor drug violation and allowed to walk. I asked an officer when I would get my phone call and he said “not until you go downtown.”

Although I was one of the first to arrive at the Chelsea piers facility I was one of the last of over 250+ people arrested to leave. I stayed for about 16 hours in the 2nd set of pens without any idea of what the police were doing. Because of the inadequate space I only got about one hour of sleep. In that time period I was also only fed a sample size box of cereal, a small carton of milk and a powerbar (many people didn’t even get powerbars). Thankfully the police were good about refilling the water cooler we could reach through the fence. We learned from one officer who was “processing” us that he was making $1000/day in overtime and he told us that his buddy bought a car with the money he made in overtime after the last convention.

Sometime around noon on Saturday the last of us were finally loaded onto a prisoner transport bus and driven down to the main police station downtown. There they treated us like maximum security prisoners even though the entire time I was in custody I only saw people peacefully cooperating with police orders. We were handcuffed and chained together in groups and led to a room where we were searched again (for the 4th or 5th time, but not the last). We then waited in a cell to be fingerprinted and photographed. More than 16 hours after my arrest I was allowed my first phone call.

While waiting we were fed bolognia sandwhiches and milk. I also learned that two of the people being held were under 18. They repeatedly informed officers of this but that didn’t seem to make any difference. After waiting for a few more hours and watching the police process us with paper forms (there were no computers!!!) I was chained to some other prisoners and fingerprinted. We waited in another cramped cell chained together until the police took us downstairs to be photographed. We were told informally that it would take about 5 hours to check our fingerprints against any open crimes and that we definitely wouldn’t be released before then. Then they took us down into the infamous “Tombs” where we were held in jail cells waiting to be arraigned. Luckily there were payphones in the cells so we were able to keep calling the National Lawyers Guild to find out what was going on with our cases. We were fed more bolognia sandwhiches. Josh Kinberg, who I knew from Parsons, was there too after he was arrested giving an interview with MSNBC about his thesis project, a bike he invented that sprays chalk messages on the ground as he rides.

After 9pm (24 hours since the first arrests) we learned that the Lawyers Guild was filing a writ to the court challenging our detention without being charged. At about 2:30am, without ever being read my rights, being given the option to see a lawyer or being officially told what I was charged with, I was taken upstairs to sign a D.A.T (desk appearance ticket) and then released. From my understanding, the D.A.T. I received is the equivalent of a parking ticket. I made it home at 4am only to come back in the morning to pick up the stuff I had on me when I was arrested (my keys, my phone, my camera). My bicycle is being held in Brooklyn until the DA deems it is no longer evidence.

I heard from a friend that my arrest was on the evening news on Friday. If anyone has pictures or video of it, please let me know.

When I showed up for my court date, I was informed that two additional charges were added; I was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of parading without a permit. I took a deal offered by the city, an A.C.D. (adjournment in contemplation of dismissal) which was not an ommission of guilt but an understanding that if I was not arrested again in 6 months, the charges would be completely dropped by the City. Several months later I was finally able to get my bicycle back from the police.

In the past year the City under Bloomberg has continued an excessive, costly, and heavy-handed response to cyclists gathering to ride within thier constitutionally protected rights. Hundreds of cyclists have been arrested by the NYPD, including 49 cyclists during yesterday’s Critical Mass ride. As one cyclist put it: “I got arrested today for riding my bike on a public street. If that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will.”

More info on yesterday’s Critical Mass arrests here.

“So, the only real issue is whether the City can lawfully proscribe an otherwise-approved public art exhibition on its streets because that exhibition involves painting graffiti on mock subway cars. The City does not suggest, nor could it, that such painting is itself a crime, since the ‘subway car’ panels are plainly mock-ups. But it claims the right to censor this exercise of free speech expression because, in the words of the Mayor on his radio program last Friday, the exhibition is tantamount to ‘encouraging vandalism.’ By the same token, presumably, a street performance of Hamlet would be tantamount to encouraging revenge murder. Or, in a different vein, a street performance of ‘rap’ music might well include the singing of lyrics that could be viewed as encouraging sexual assault.” And then he set the whole court into an uproar finishing with “As for a street performance of Oedipus Rex don’t even think about it.”

Earlier: NYC revokes permit for Getting Up block party

Play as Trane, a “toy” graffiti artist with the street smarts, athletic prowess and vision to become an “All City King” — the most reputable of all graffiti artists. Along your quest, uncover the mayor’s deep, dark secret… and use your fighting talents and high-wire graf to expose the city’s leader as a corrupt tyrant.

Hmm. I wonder what city the game is based on… Anyway, a block party in New York City, planned by Marc Ecko to promote the game before its release has drawn fire from city council members and Bloomberg. Earlier this week the city announced it is revoking the event’s permit. Always the advocate of graffiti, Bloomberg explained:

“Look, there is a fine line here between freedom of expression and going out and encouraging people to hurt this city…Defacing subway cars is hardly a joke; encouraging people, kids in particular, to do that after all the money we’ve spent, all the time we’ve spent removing graffiti.”

Marc Ecko responded with a pretty eloquent defense:

…
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.
This is my tribute to the 20 participating artists whose works now command top dollar across the globe, as well as to an art form powerful enough to permeate virtually every moment in our lives, from the ads and music videos we watch on TV to the products we wear and consume.
…

Yesterday amidst the controversy, the official Getting Up site (created by Code and Theory) launched. The site is huge, amazing, and definitely worth checking out (I write completely without bias). Even UPN 9 News is hip to it. Today, UPN 9 included video of the getting up site in its coverage of the block party dispute.

UPDATE – 8.20.05: Marc Ecko, Ecko’s attorney, Daniel Perez, and the New York Civil Liberties Union planned a federal lawsuit saying that revoking a permit because officials don’t approve of the event violates First Amendment rights.
The City is arguing that the event encourages vandalism. But:

One of the graffiti artists, Lady Pink, said she has painted murals, with the required permits, in the city for decades without inciting New Yorkers to become vandals.
“Subways have been clean since 1989,” she said. “It’s just ignorant. They don’t know what they’re talking about.”