I was passing thru a parklet near Lincoln Center last week...a place I have been MANY times! It was a lovely Early Spring day, but not a Farmer's Market Day, so the parklet was wide open and spotted with tables.
Then I noticed it. These fragile looking metal cafe tables and chairs that you see here, in Bryant Park, in Times Square...you know the ones. I typically avoid sitting on those chairs for fear the fat girl will bring it to it's knees, and me to my rear end. But on this day, maybe because it was not yet lunch time, there were many empty sets. Maybe that is why I noticed something I never really paid much mind to before...
The tables and chairs in this parklet sit atop COBBLESTONES! Talk about unsteady to walk on, but try sitting on these delicate looking chairs and getting caught up in the uneven grooves and stone! That is a recipe for disaster.
Now, cobblestones carry with them more than a rough texture, but a history...they scream Old New York, and that almost makes it all okay, and certainly makes it aesthetically pleasing! But an ankle sprain is an ankle sprain, so when designing this parklet, I wonder what the conversation was in that room? Maintaining the cobblestones or removing them in favor on something easier underfoot? Did they even discuss this?
Either way, if the measure of a parklet's success is how many people use it, well, then I guess this one is still a success.
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