Wallet card with a 56-year-old election sign

John Lindsay served as Mayor of New York City from 1966 to 1973. He was a polarizing mayor who was popular in Manhattan but not in the outer boroughs, and his lasting legacy is probably the poor response to a blizzard in 1969, where Manhattan streets were prioritized for plowing.

In 1966 an ad was painted in Flatbush, Brooklyn, for Lindsay and several local politicians. After the election it was covered with billboards until they were taken down in 2011. At that time several other politicians' names were also visible. In recent years graffiti has obscured those other names, but six mayoral administrations and almost sixty years later, Lindsay's name is still clearly visible, running for an election decades in the past.

This was the sign I was most excited about seeing, and more than any other individual sign was the impetus for my "trip" around the city taking photos of old signs. It was great to stand there and almost feel like it was 1966. Unfortunately graffiti defacing these old treasures is becoming more common, and this won't be the last sign in this series unfortunately damaged this way.