Urban Review in New York City

I arrived in NYC on Wednesday morning. This, my second visit to the “Big Apple”, is much different than my first. October 2001 was such an odd time in NYC with body recovery still on-going at the WTC site.

In the two days I’ve been here I have managed to take over 800 pictures. Being cheap I took the city bus from Laguardia airport through Harlem along 125th Street. Wow, Harlem has some great architect and the streets were full of people.

I took the subway from 116th and Broadway to Columbus Circle on the edge of Central Park. Having just seen the CBS story on 2 Columbus Circle (pictured, right) I had to see the fuss for myself. I’ve said before that I am an urbanist, not a preservationist. This is yet another example. This building is terrible in the urban environment. It is not welcoming at all. The new owners want to either raze or reskin the building. Sure it was designed by noted architect Edward Durrell Stone. Must we save failures simply because it’s architect was famous?

So what are my other thoughts? The subway system is great. The grid is very walkable although the sidewalk experience varies substantially depending upon the adjacent building. The new MOMA is an architectural masterpiece but the sidewalk experience on the 54th Street side is dismal. The main entrance on 53rd Street is much more interesting.

The free Staten Island Ferry gives you great views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Highly recommended if you are in NYC. I’m here with one of my best friends that lives in Seattle. We are staying with friends of mine on Staten Island in their lovely 19th Century 3-story victorian home.

Yesterday I got to take in the Brooklyn Bridge and several Brooklyn neighborhoods, including the spectacular Brooklyn Heights. St. Louis should be so lucky as to be as urban as Brooklyn. We also walked around the East Village and the ‘projects’ in Alphabet City (so named because of the lettered streets). While the projects we walked through were poorly designed from an urban perspective they were clean and well maintained.

One of the best experiences was taking a pedicab from Central Park to the ultimate in excess — Trump Tower. The young Parisian peddled us through major traffic with ease. At one point a taxi was so close I could have reached over the side and touched it. I sensed the taxi and pedicab drivers have a mutual respect for each other.

Today it is onto Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, Tribeca and SoHo. We are spending the night in Manhattan this evening so it should be fun staying out late (if my feet will hold up). I hope to explore some more of the boroughs between now and Sunday, the Bronx in particular.

NYC has its banal blocks but it has so much visual excitement. I’ll take the eclectic mix of the East Village over the more polished areas any day. Urban life is simply more interesting when it is not so sterile and predicable.

– Steve