The New York Times > New York Region > A Last Look at ‘The Gates’ Before They All Come Down: “Out of a side-door compartment, she fished a saffron-colored Band-Aid tin, and from the tin snatched a cigarette. An assistant came to the window with a report: Someone had cut hearts out of the fabric in four gates. It’s always something; a few minutes earlier she pointed out a brand new gate, a replacement for the one that was hit by a taxicab. Was there much vandalism?

‘Vandalism?’ she repeated. ‘Cutting out hearts? It annoys us, but I can’t call that vandalism.’”