It’s Super Bowl time! ?Okay, I must confess that I am not a football fan. ?I can manage a slight glimmer of enthusiasm for some teams. ?I went to graduate school in Berkeley so I have a fondness for the 49ers. ?I worked for the Obama campaign in ’08 and as a side benefit – besides winning Pennsylvania for him – I follow the Steelers intermittently. ?I can’t muster much energy for the hallucinatory experience of Times Square turned into a theme park for the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos. ?What does interest me is how the pedestrianization of Times Square has made it accessible as an honest-to-god plaza. ?People walk through it, shop around it, play on the “red steps” at Duffy Square, take ridiculous photos of themselves in front of anything fixed or moving, and generally have a terrific time. ?Vendors set up wagons that sell overpriced (bad) coffee and hot dogs. ?Nobody cares. ?In face, they love it. ?And after Super Bowl Sunday everything will change?again. ?The tourists and natives alike will inhabit it differently until “the Square” is called upon to perform some other function. ?A wonderful old part of New York turned into its newest asset. ?Ain’t that grand!
Oh, and photos to follow tomorrow.
1 comment
Great article.