Friday, February 19, 2010. 11:30 Am. [[Partly Sunny, Windy, Cold]] & Saturday, February 20, 2010. 2:00pm [[Partly Sunny, Slightly Windy, Not too cold]]
Starting Point: E. 67th street and Park Avenue.
Ending Point: E. 59th street and 5th avenue.
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Packed with eyes, the city life never stops moving, or ‘dancing’ as Jane Jacobs decides to call it (The Death and Life of Great American Cities [1993] pg. 65). 5th Avenue by Central Park was crowded with tourists with big cameras, mothers out with their kids who are on Winter Break, dog walkers with five, six, ten dogs at once, and everyday business people trying to get to their job or out on their lunch break. A seemingly safe city and a completely open, public space. Its sidewalk users and a “network of doormen and superintendents, of delivery boys and nursemaids, a form of hired neighborhood, keeps residential Park Avenue supplied with eyes” (pg. 51). No doubt that it’s daily users have taken Upper East Side/Midtown East to be their own space watching it all the time. However, this area is all very open and public. Through the street there are many residential homes, condos, and a few stores here and there: House of Mai, Godiva Chocolatier, Salih Salon, parking lots, to mention a few. I was having trouble defining was public and private. For example, stores, restaurants, salons. Are those private or public? Unable to make up my mind, I decided they are both. Yes, they are public because whoever can go in, but private because you can’t just enter Salih Salon with a group of ten friends and sit to have coffee. You can go into Godiva with your boyfriend and have a bite of every chocolate that catches your eye. In the sense, they are private. Along the avenues, there were hotels, institutes, big stores (Apple Store, F.A.O Schwarz), jewelry stores, plazas and obviously, Central Park. Besides the Park and the plazas, everything else I considered private. In 5th avenue and E.60street, Dories C. Freedman Plaza, there is a big open sculpture “The Ego and the I.D.”
This is public. People are allowed to be around it. Kids play near it and under it. Many take pictures by it. Along the same street, there are men offering people horse-rides. Now, this is public. Paid-public? Private-Public? I’m really not sure what to name something that is public but not free. Then the plaza itself and the plaza by the Apple Store and F.A.O Schwarz are completely public. With rock benches, beautiful fountain, tables and chairs where one can sit and relax and just enjoy the scenery and observe city life. These and the park are considered gathering spaces. It’s not like the salon that I mentioned earlier that you just can’t go in, sit down and chill, but where you can run around, jump, scream, play, eat and relax because there is nothing holding you down.
Considering the cold weather on Friday, there was a fair amount of people in the street, in the park, and the plazas. Not one soul was sitting Doris C. Freedman Plaza, they’d probably freeze to death, but by the Apple Store, many where relaxing on the chairs. Including me. By noon, however, 5th avenue was very crowded than just 20 minutes before. On Saturday, I arrived expecting to see twice or even triple the amount of people on that were there on Friday, but no. It was basically the same amount. The same fast-paced environment with families, and dog-walkers and tourists. Okay, maybe a bit more. But not crazy-much like you would expect on a weekend. I was surprised, maybe because it was roughly the around the same time, maybe it got more crowded at a later time. What I did notice on Saturday, though, was that the Freedman plaza had less snow and more people. Since it wasn’t as cold as Friday, people find it more comfortable to sit there to relax a little. The Apple Store plaza was also more crowded as well. And as I passed by Central Park, I saw that the petting zoo also had more children. Now, is the petting zoo public because it is at a public park? Or private because you have to pay and admission fee? I shall classify it as both. Not a gathering space, however. Just, well, a petting zoo.
Besides the plazas, the few benches on 5th avenue bordering Central Park, the streets I passed by in Upper East Side/Midtown East does not offer much of a gathering/public space sort of area. Mostly it has many residential homes, stores, and hotels were people constantly go in and out, having a good time and wasting loads of money in the expensive Manhattan streets. So though there are wide sidewalks with plenty of walking, “public” space, I consider this neighborhood mostly private.
Starting Point: E. 67th street and Park Avenue.
Ending Point: E. 59th street and 5th avenue.
----
Packed with eyes, the city life never stops moving, or ‘dancing’ as Jane Jacobs decides to call it (The Death and Life of Great American Cities [1993] pg. 65). 5th Avenue by Central Park was crowded with tourists with big cameras, mothers out with their kids who are on Winter Break, dog walkers with five, six, ten dogs at once, and everyday business people trying to get to their job or out on their lunch break. A seemingly safe city and a completely open, public space. Its sidewalk users and a “network of doormen and superintendents, of delivery boys and nursemaids, a form of hired neighborhood, keeps residential Park Avenue supplied with eyes” (pg. 51). No doubt that it’s daily users have taken Upper East Side/Midtown East to be their own space watching it all the time. However, this area is all very open and public. Through the street there are many residential homes, condos, and a few stores here and there: House of Mai, Godiva Chocolatier, Salih Salon, parking lots, to mention a few. I was having trouble defining was public and private. For example, stores, restaurants, salons. Are those private or public? Unable to make up my mind, I decided they are both. Yes, they are public because whoever can go in, but private because you can’t just enter Salih Salon with a group of ten friends and sit to have coffee. You can go into Godiva with your boyfriend and have a bite of every chocolate that catches your eye. In the sense, they are private. Along the avenues, there were hotels, institutes, big stores (Apple Store, F.A.O Schwarz), jewelry stores, plazas and obviously, Central Park. Besides the Park and the plazas, everything else I considered private. In 5th avenue and E.60street, Dories C. Freedman Plaza, there is a big open sculpture “The Ego and the I.D.”
This is public. People are allowed to be around it. Kids play near it and under it. Many take pictures by it. Along the same street, there are men offering people horse-rides. Now, this is public. Paid-public? Private-Public? I’m really not sure what to name something that is public but not free. Then the plaza itself and the plaza by the Apple Store and F.A.O Schwarz are completely public. With rock benches, beautiful fountain, tables and chairs where one can sit and relax and just enjoy the scenery and observe city life. These and the park are considered gathering spaces. It’s not like the salon that I mentioned earlier that you just can’t go in, sit down and chill, but where you can run around, jump, scream, play, eat and relax because there is nothing holding you down.Considering the cold weather on Friday, there was a fair amount of people in the street, in the park, and the plazas. Not one soul was sitting Doris C. Freedman Plaza, they’d probably freeze to death, but by the Apple Store, many where relaxing on the chairs. Including me. By noon, however, 5th avenue was very crowded than just 20 minutes before. On Saturday, I arrived expecting to see twice or even triple the amount of people on that were there on Friday, but no. It was basically the same amount. The same fast-paced environment with families, and dog-walkers and tourists. Okay, maybe a bit more. But not crazy-much like you would expect on a weekend. I was surprised, maybe because it was roughly the around the same time, maybe it got more crowded at a later time. What I did notice on Saturday, though, was that the Freedman plaza had less snow and more people. Since it wasn’t as cold as Friday, people find it more comfortable to sit there to relax a little. The Apple Store plaza was also more crowded as well. And as I passed by Central Park, I saw that the petting zoo also had more children. Now, is the petting zoo public because it is at a public park? Or private because you have to pay and admission fee? I shall classify it as both. Not a gathering space, however. Just, well, a petting zoo.
Besides the plazas, the few benches on 5th avenue bordering Central Park, the streets I passed by in Upper East Side/Midtown East does not offer much of a gathering/public space sort of area. Mostly it has many residential homes, stores, and hotels were people constantly go in and out, having a good time and wasting loads of money in the expensive Manhattan streets. So though there are wide sidewalks with plenty of walking, “public” space, I consider this neighborhood mostly private.
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