New York is unquestionably better off as a city than it was a quarter-century ago. But with the urban revitalization of Gotham has come a devotion to to glittering development and expensive cultural monuments that threatens to bury forever the city’s rich history of populist art. The graffiti that covered the city’s subway trains in the dismal 1970s may have been a symbol of blighted urbanity, but it was also the mark of a populace that had art flowing in its veins. And if there is any good to be found in America’s extended economic slump, it may be that New York is beginning to rediscover some of its old city grit.