SOS - Shannon On Sustainability...: February 2012

Photo Research
I headed back to the Times Square Park-let on another unseasonably warm day-Wednesday 2.22.12 at about 12 Noon.

To clarify, the Park-let visited extends just North of 42nd Street at the "Crossroads of the World," between Broadway and Seventh Avenue. The portion I visited were the areas between 42nd/44th Streets on the East side of the Crossroads.

It was just about lunchtime and I stopped while I was on my way up to shop for a client at the D&D building. I note this because a park-let is not typically on my list of destinations when I am out-and-about in my beloved NYC. In fact, I find them, in most cases, to be an uncomfortable place of overexposure. I would prefer a park bench or engaged seating just outside of a shop or restaurant.

Some notes from what I observed in the field:

There were (3) zones delineated. One was the curb, and the other two were where the regular street used to be. This former street area is painted blue in one portion, which appears to be the space where pedestrians are to walk, and the unpainted area where small cafe tables and chairs were set up.

Close-Up: The Three Zones


From L to R: Seating Area, Walking Area, Curb

While the area on the street for pedestrians was designed to alleviate the crowding of the sidewalks, particularly in a busy part of town such as Times Square, I was surprised to see that many people still preferred to walk on the side walk. And it was also interesting to me that they chose to walk through the seating area zone instead of the more wide-open "blue-zone." Maybe they felt more secure to be closer to the sidewalks that flank the park-let.

Most Pedestrians stay on Sidewalk vs. Blue Zone

People walk in the Seating Area

There must be limited food permits available for the area I was in, because all I saw was a Chinese food truck parked within the park-let. It had its own placards to advertise itself set along the walking area and it was interesting that there was no line when I arrived, though business became stronger when I left a half hour later.

Rickshaw Fine Dining Food Truck

Signage for the Food Truck Seating Area

It would appear that most of the people I observed were tourists. How do I know this? Well, many were outwardly taking photos of the scenery, of each other with NYPD cars and officers, and had shopping bags from many of the popular stores around town. I even saw a few men sitting with suitcases at the metal cafe tables as if they just got off of a bus, train or plane from out of town and came to Times Square first thing!

Looking South to 42nd Street

Some were eating take-out food from the Rickshaw Dumpling Bar (see above) while others looked to have brought their own bag lunch to enjoy during a lunch break from work.

Having Lunch

For the most part, the demographic of those seated was a good mix of men and women, but mostly younger folks, say in their 20s and 30s. There were a few people with young children enjoying the day.

The Kids Get into the Act

I did witness one older gentleman at least in his 70s sitting with a raincoat with his briefcase under his seat just looking out over the scene. (see below)

Briefcase Man

I found it really curious that most of the folks seated faced Uptown (North), as you can see in the photos below. But taking notice of the breeze, which was prominent, though not harsh, it was blowing North, so therefore at their backs, as was the Sun, so this may account of the positions I noted.

Facing North?

I did not see any homeless or downtrodden while in the park-let. Maybe this was because it was mid-day, but there was a heavy police presence, as there is a main precinct bordering this park-let with many officers on foot and in cars all around.
It was also interesting to see how clean the area was overall. There were garbage cans about the area, but that very often does not deter people from tossing their trash about. Maybe the police presence is the reason yet again!
Here are a few more views of the sights...