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The birds are back
It’s been awhile, but worth noting (for those who notice such things…) that the 59th street birds are back! When the Columbus Circle subway got its renovation, they uprooted the bushes by the entrance that was like a sparrow colony, probably the source of those grimy birds that resembled coal miners that you’d see while waiting for A,B, C, D or 1 or 9 train. But they planted new bushes and it seems the tenants did not waste time moving back in (more likely scenario- it’s a new wave of gentrifiers who took up this fabulous slice of real estate now that all the hard work has been put into renovating the neighborhood).
Once upon a Tree… Returns?
In October I blogged about the sadness of this tree pit near 59th Street-
how final its destiny looked all bricked up. But it looks like there might be some re-consideration? Here’s what the site looks like now…
Let’s see what ending this urban tree pit gets.
Once upon a tree
Columbus Circle Area, NYC October 2010
What does this remind you of? A tombstone for a tree? With all the storms we’ve had this year, I’ll say it again: It’s been a bad year for NYC trees. A bricked up tree pit is somewhat sad, no? Life was once there, but someone didn’t want it to ever return again.
Bubbly Street Cookie on Central Park South
I haven’t seen a Street Cookie in awhile… You know, the random object in the middle of the sidewalk that seems misplaced, weird or possessed. This is a Street Cookie because it story-tells with its image alone. An empty champagne bottle on swanky Central Park South. A statement of the surrounding real estate (it aint a 40-ounce). Was it a tourist who consumed it stumbling down the block to their hotel? Was it left by a silly, slightly overweight, over-tanned, under-age group of girls shouting from the sun-roof of a limo-Hummer? What was the consumer celebrating? New York New York? Wedding, prom, life, sorrow? What story landed that bottle directly in front of the tree? Was it planted there on purpose? It’s a Street Cookie, alright.
Urban Arbor-Based B-52 Acorn Operations
Since fall decided to make an August debut, us urban sidewalk pedestrians are getting an early treat that is usually reserved for September. We are referring to when trees, and the little furry demons that live in them, launch acorns from sky high, giving you a nice bonk on the head. Sometimes you get some warning beforehand: they explode on the concrete pavement just 2 steps ahead of you. Often though, like subway rainwater scum-b0mbs, they land directly on your head. This is not a hazard you’d normally assign to urban living. But we walk around a lot in New York City, and Urban Arbor-Based B-52 Acorn Operations are indeed a reality here. And if they don’t bonk you on the head, you’re not out of the woods yet: the rounder ones have a good spin to them if you step on them the wrong way.
Bad year for New York City Trees
As we weather another storm, I pass by yet more fallen trees. On Dyckman street, a tree branch (or tree- visibility was that bad) squashed a car. Newly budding branches enticed by the first warm breath of Spring are splayed out in pieces on the sidewalks. Was this a bad year for the NYC tree? We had the strange Upper West Side tornado that spun through the park like it was Oz, we had a winter wonderland of majestically ice-coated trees that crumbled down along the 5th avenue sidewalk of the Upper East Side… It just seems like trees took a real beating this year.
Urban Tree Series
Thorn tree in Buenos Aires- they also had large cocoon like sacks hanging from branches that burst into cotton balls. Very alien-like.
Keep Off Everything
Does Parks have nothing else better to do but put up fences everywhere? You can’t promote connecting people to nature if you’re constantly putting up barriers. I swear walking in some of our parks (Central Park being the worst in this sense) is like walking in a transient zoo for humans, where the trees get to watch us. Fences everywhere, and cement paths dictating where it is we’re supposed to step. Granted, some areas need protection for growth, some semblance of order, etc, but come on, balance it. The economy may be down but walk in parks and you get the sense they seem to have the cash exclusively to install more fences.
In the Inwood park entrance they took out a beloved man-made trail under a weeping tree and uprooted the darling bench where you could spend some time with quiet thoughts on the not so walked road. There was even an article in the local paper awhile back about how Parks installed some sort of alarm system that threatened you verbally if you walked on the grass or were too close to a tree (can’t remember which one, but it was something crazy like that. I have to note here, we also have crimes of “arbocide” in Inwood, wanted posters and all).
Someone check out the background of who’s behind this. It reminds me of Guliani.
One big overly pruned lawn is not nature. Keep the broken glass, crack vials and muggers out, but give us back our parks.
Urban Trees Series
Near Boat House in Central Park. I think it’s an Ent- the tree species from Lord of the Rings.
Urban Trees Series
Trees make or break a city block. So let’s give some respect to urban trees.
Palermo Soho, Buenos Aires
2008
