I am a bit of a nerd for good city planning, I guess that is one of the many reasons why I love NYC. This beautiful big city is probably this country's greatest example of city planning. From Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge to Rockefeller Center to (my one of my favorite places) theHighline. Well now in Brooklyn the city is working on extending the Brooklyn Bridge Park on the pier south of the bridge. Below is a rendering of the design:
And this video was part of a segment on WNYC's Brian Lehrer show called Cityscapes where they have been looking at different aspects of NYC and how it has evolved.
These types of projects add to the greatness of the city and make it livable.
Several years ago I became obsessed with the Highline, an elevated train track on the west side of Manhattan that use to service the meatpacking district but has not been in use since 1980. There are a lot of reasons why it is one of my favorite places in NYC. I have been up there, trespassing as it is private property, several times and have taken a lot of photos. My most recent venture was in early August and I was able to get some good pictures of the construction transforming it from an abandoned railroad tracks to a fantastic park. Below is a video of how the park will be constructed.
Here are a bunch of other videos that go into detail about the history and the evolution of the Highline. Also here is a slideshow of the final design.
This post start when I saw this post on the highline blog offering a great aerial photo as desktop wallpaper. Generally, I hate wallpaper, of the wall variety and of the screen variety but this one is great and is up on my computer. I may take another venture up on the Highline next weekend and take some more pictures showing the progress of the construction. There is one thing I hope the designers do not remove and that is all the great graffiti that has built up over the years. The wall below is right below 23rd street.
Here is a large view. This photo was about 15-20 photos stitched together using a free photo stitching software so please ignore the stupid watermarks.
Friends We Like is a site that showcases interesting/creative people (see site for info for upcoming show). There most recent video featured Ellis G. who does amazing chalk shadow outlines of objects around the city (the site also features a video with Ellis G.). I first saw his stuff on the Lower East Side in February of 2006 and more recently I saw some of his work in a gallery (I can't remember which one, was gallery hoping with a friend). Below are the pic I took with my shitty Nokia 8801.
Just got back home from Atlantic City playing mostly poker and didn't get anything good going this trip. Oh well that is how tournament poker goes. I think I played good for the most part and can analyze and learn from my mistakes. I was able to make a little money playing craps when a girl was rolling and hit a hard 4 for me which I had $5 and I parlayed the $50 and later in the roll she hit the hard 4 again which paid me $500. Weeeee, I love craps it is a fun game when someone is rolling hot.
I love the feeling of coming home from a trip mostly because I love this city so much. The t-shirt above is a limited edition shirt that was designed for the new Standard Hotel above the High Line that will be opening soon. It was designed by Eric Haze, a legendary NYC graffiti artist (you can see some of his work here). I want one of those t-shirts.
I have a ton of stuff to read as I didn't do much google reader checking the past week and so I am sure I will have a lot to post/comment on.
In the mean time I am off to wholefoods to get some cookies and eat some dinner and you can listen to some of these random songs below:
...I will be at Harrahs in Atlantic City for a WSOP Circuit Event so I will not have very many opportunities to post. This will force me to try posting more via my iPhone. There are a couple of things that are happening this week in NYC that I am disappointed to miss:
Update at 2:40 - Just got an e-mail about a comedy show at the Knitting Factory benefitingNY Cares featuring David Cross and Eugene Mirman and a bunch of other NYC comedians.
I didn't know that much about Nikola Tesla (just something about electricity, a car, and a band) but yesterday as I spent 2 hours traveling to my sisters for thanksgiving dinner I was listening to Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson and this weeks program focused on the "Strange Genius of Nikola Tesla." I would really recommend you listen to the program as Tesla was a very fascinating man.
The thing that most surprised me about Tesla was that he spent most of his life here in NYC. Tesla spent a lot of time feeding pigeons in Bryant Park and 40th and 6th Ave is Nikola Tesla Corner. Tesla's first lab was on 175 Grand Street. He lived in the New Yorker Hotel in room 3327 and 3328. And there is lots more that he did in NYC (including his earthquake machine that he created in his lab on Houston).
There is a great interactive map with pictures and audio clips on the WNYC page (the Mayor Fiorello La Guardia eulogy of Tesla is a great listen). This is one of those times I really wish the iPhone supported flash as I would really like to take an interactive tour of Tesla's NYC. I guess I can visit and read the stories, I just can't listen to the great clips.
I have been riding a fixed gear for about 2 years now and it is pretty fun/intense riding a bike with no breaks in NYC. Below is a pic of my bike a BianchiPista:
The video below is a series of 63 pictures I took while riding from Broom Street up West Broadway to Union Square (see map below).
It was a fun short ride slightly over a mile. My camera work definitely needs some work but I am happy with the first effort. I need to play around with my camera to figure out some of the settings to make some of this automatic.
I also took these 2 videos with my camera riding on 25th street to lex and down on lex to 23rd to broadway and down broadway to union sq.
Streetsblog had a quick but meaningful chat with Jan Gehl the urban planner who is working with the City and the DOT on creating a more livable street. Definitely worth a watch total conversation is about 9 min. Enjoy:
About a year ago I discovered a great blog called Streetsblog.org. The focus of the blog is bring attention to the livable street movement. The Bloomberg administration has done an amazing job making a lot of progressive changes to NYC streets making them safer for pedestrians, bikes, and cars.
The intersections of 23rd Street, Broadway, and 5th Ave are probably the best illustration of this policy. Where once there was only space for cars, trucks, and buses now there is space for bikes pedestrians, tourists, and public use space. You can see the plans and the thought process for the space called "The Madison Square Pedestrian Project."
Well now Jan Gehl, a Danish urban designer/planner and architect, has created a plan called "World Class Streets" that takes the DOT's and City's plans for livable streets and combines the best parts and makes recommendations for the City moving forward. What is really interesting about the plan is that Gehl looks at all aspects of what has been done like the summer streets, current trends in city planning, bike space, coast line space, etc. I am really glad that the Bloomberg administration was able to get another term as I think this Mayor has done a great job of creating progressive policy for making the city more livable for all of its residents.
My love affair with this city is well known and I especially enjoy old pictures of this fantastic city. Below are some links with lots of great shots:
Via Kottke - These are pics from the 1930s. This one is my favorite showing the elevated train on 9th ave. Not too long ago I saw an old pic in the Kiehl's store of 3rd ave and the elevated train (unfortunately right now I can't find that pic online but when I do I will update).
Current Flickr - Mostly new pics from searching Flickr for NYC tag.
Forgotten NY - There are a ton of really interesting things here that can provide historical context for the city.
This post will get updated as I find new pics, I especially want to find good ones from the 70s.
