Park(ing) Day on Montague Street
Linus Gelber
Today is Park(ing) Day, during which 50 parking spots in New York City are taken over and turned into Park Spots instead. The New York celebration is part of a national and international effort - in choice spots all over the world, sod rolls out and people take the place of cars.
My neighborhood has two Park(ing) Spots, and after a relaxing stretch down on Court Street I mosey over the Henry Hicks Park on Montague Street to see what the competition is up to.
Henry Hicks Park is put together by a few architecture students, and they have set out a little homemade blue fence, painted spool reels for sitting and playing, and bunches of yellow and purple flowers.
A few young moms are playing with their toddlers, and there isn't nearly as much street traffic as down at Stay-cation Park, which gives it less of a Wacky New Yorkers feel. We talk about NYC and cities far and wide, about the Hagia Sophia, which I've seen, and La Sagrada Familia by GaudÃ, which I haven't. Just behind me, out of frame in this picture, is a small fenced-in area for dogs, with water and dry food and toys.
We're about to get discovered by a passing horde of high school kids, who take over one end of the park and shriek and play and giggle and howl. "I love this!" they cry, again and again, stopping at one point for a heavy round of applause for the organizers.
The pocket parks border hard on the street, but they really feel apart from passing traffic - it's the greening that plays on the senses, I reckon.
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