Summer Streets

You probably heard that a few blocks along Broadway at Times Square and Herald Square (near Macy’s) have been permanently closed to automobile traffic to make way for two pedestrian thoroughfares. The city has also contributed outdoor furniture to these areas so that people can stay for a while and really savor this unique vantage point on the city. I think this is a terrific move, but it doesn’t have me nearly as excited as a different initiative, though temporary, that the city has just finished experimenting with for the second year in a row. It is called Summer Streets, and for three Saturdays in August, from 7 am to 1 pm, Park Avenue and the continuation of Park Avenue below 14th Street, primarily Lafayette Avenue, were closed to traffic from 72nd Street all the way down to City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge, a distance of about 4 miles. Not only that, but because the city recognized that most intersecting streets also had to be closed to really make this initiative worthwhile, there were only a handful of times when you had to slow down for crossing traffic. To travel the wide boulevards of Park Avenue is a special treat, and like so many of these efforts to make the city more pedestrian friendly, you are afforded a perspective on the city that makes you see it and experience it in a whole new way.

THIS POST IS BEING INTERRUPTED FOR A SPECIAL BULLETIN FROM THE BLOG ADMINISTRATOR. IT THUNDERSTORMED ALL DAY ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 22ND IN NEW YORK CITY. YOU COULDN'T HAVE POSSIBLY DONE SUCH A LONG WALK IN THAT KIND OF DOWNPOUR. PLEASE DON'T DENY THIS AND SHARE VERY BRIEFLY WHAT YOU WERE REALLY DOING ON THIS RAINY SATURDAY.

Yes, that's true, I did not take advantage of Summer Streets yesterday. There was too much rain. I appreciate this opportunity to set the record straight. In fact, I headed for the far reaches of West Chelsea to go to 4 galleries, all between 10th and 11th Avenues, featuring photographs of New York City. Not ONE of these galleries turned out to be open. Which brings up a completely new topic: the New York Art World. I really feel they're playing this game with a whole set of rules from which I have been systematically excluded. All of those galleries should have been open on a Saturday, I think, but not one was. How do you find out about these things? How is one supposed to know? I am at a loss. I will end this post, then, with that note of sadness that comes from missing Summer Streets, being misinformed about the galleries, and my tendency, not easily shaken, to shade the truth just a bit. My sincerest apologies. However, I am obliged to add in self-defense that all previous posts about the future turned out to be almost entirely true.