Walking the 'Summer Streets'

by Sandy Ikeda
Tue, 26 Aug 2008 at 4:48 PM

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Got back from Hawaii in time to participate in the third and last Saturday of "Summer Streets," in which Mayor Bloomberg closed Park Avenue and connecting streets from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park. Still jet-lagged (it's about 11 hours from Honolulu to New York), I got a bit of a late start, but did manage the mile-and-a-half or so from the Bridge to Union Square.

The first thing I noticed were the large number of cyclists (i.e., bicyclists, skateboarders, Razors, et al.) in proportion to walkers — perhaps 20 to 1, guessing conservatively. There were also quite a few joggers. The cyclists took up most of the street, however, leaving the fringes and, of course, the sidewalks (mostly) to the pure pedestrians. And when construction did force me to venture out into the street I felt quite uncomfortable, worried that a silent, speeding biker would come too close. Runners used the street, but I was too afraid for their safety to watch very closely.

On the section of the route that I walked, and I assume it was similar all the way up to 72nd Street, there were police regulating cross-town traffic, stage performances (a young woman singing an aria at Lafayette and Spring and organized dancing farther north), tents with volunteers handing out literature of various kinds, and the occasional but sensible first-aid tent. I did see one biker take a spill.

The emphasis was clearly on creating a festive and reasonably safe atmosphere. I'm not sure how this would work on a more regular basis, but I imagine that participants, residents, and businesses would find ways to congenially adapt to one another if it ever happened, and I would expect clearer rules to emerge about how space should be shared among vehicles, runners, and walkers. Indeed, as I observed, this was to some extent already starting to happen. The organized entertainment is nice, but it would be interesting to see what other kinds of patterns of use would arise spontaneously over time.

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I was happy that the organizers chose Lafayette Street as the bottom of the route. Lafayette between Houston and Astor Place seems to be transitioning from older to newer uses at a less breathtaking pace than, say, the DUMBO district in Brooklyn. There are still garages and the like hanging around, which is the sort of thing I really like. But what makes it one my favorite parts of the city is how the street widens as it approaches Astor Place. That big-sky openness (apologies to Montanans) blends with Parasuco-jean hipness and tattoo-parlor grittiness to create a fresh, very urban energy. It's sort of like the meat-packing district in that respect, only better. Take a walk there and you'll see what I mean. (Incidentally, Francis Morrone offers an interesting critique of the architecture on Lafayette up near Astor Place that appeared in the Sun back in May.)

Anyway, at Union Square I met my young friends, Massimiliano and Rosamaria, and spent the rest of that sunny, cool August afternoon in pleasant company on the summer streets talking, eating, and shopping. A good day, even if I didn't sleep a wink the night before.

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