For the moment, at least, Times Square is once again a spectacularly crazy place—crazy enough on a recent afternoon to make a seasoned police officer shake his head with a bemused grin and mutter, “Just when you thought you’d seen everything …” People were sitting on lawn chairs in the middle of Broadway. If, as the anthropologist Mary Douglas asserted, dirt is matter out of place, then this crowd of pedestrians occupying vehicular lanes represented an invigorating sort of filth, a thrilling overthrow of order.
So far, this revolution is thrown together with nothing but orange cones and cheap patio furniture. The fearless Transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, decided that it’s better to take back turf for foot traffic first and worry about piazza-tizing it later. The absence of design results in a triumph of urbanism. Suddenly, the power relationship between people in and out of cars has changed. Now drivers pass through the area at the sufferance of pedestrians, rather than the other way around. Cars don’t honk as they nose crankily into a crosswalk; they wait politely to cross the new mall, giving drivers a moment to reflect on the wisdom of taking a different route.
I kind of think the last thing we need is to make that area more hospitable to Mid-America tourists, since they bring their lousy culture with them. Plays based on Disney movies, Olive Garden...
well those college grad fly-over state americans are whos living in manhattan now. its a done deal. im so impressed with what ive seen of the highline. but that too belongs to the new upper middle class manhattanites who can afford to live here. gone is art on the beach, burned out piers and squat culture. thats just totally over here and living in simulacrumsville bkln. there is no question that we need more public space whether its in the form of dog runs, community gardens or a coned off area right in the middle of broadway.
I'm proud to have seen the high line at its weedy decayed worst, from the windows of then-crappy Chelsea galleries.
I thought the downturn might have slowed down the North Dallasization of Manhattan but it appears we have a permanent overclass that likes the Little Mermaid.
It's looking more and more like I'll never move back to New York City. The old days are gone, forever.
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- bill 6-24-2009 4:03 pm
I kind of think the last thing we need is to make that area more hospitable to Mid-America tourists, since they bring their lousy culture with them. Plays based on Disney movies, Olive Garden...
- tom moody 6-24-2009 4:55 pm [add a comment]
well those college grad fly-over state americans are whos living in manhattan now. its a done deal. im so impressed with what ive seen of the highline. but that too belongs to the new upper middle class manhattanites who can afford to live here. gone is art on the beach, burned out piers and squat culture. thats just totally over here and living in simulacrumsville bkln. there is no question that we need more public space whether its in the form of dog runs, community gardens or a coned off area right in the middle of broadway.
- bill 6-24-2009 5:11 pm [add a comment]
I'm proud to have seen the high line at its weedy decayed worst, from the windows of then-crappy Chelsea galleries.
I thought the downturn might have slowed down the North Dallasization of Manhattan but it appears we have a permanent overclass that likes the Little Mermaid.
- tom moody 6-24-2009 8:41 pm [add a comment]
It's looking more and more like I'll never move back to New York City. The old days are gone, forever.
- Justin (guest) 6-26-2009 4:56 pm [add a comment]