Parade? What African-American Day Parade?

Posted August 9, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Mid-town, Parades

Led astray again by NYC dot Gov’s Events Calendar…

I was a little concerned that it wouldn’t be as good as last year’s, which I enjoyed for many reasons but also because of the crowd’s method of preparing for and enjoying a good parade (as I mention, lots of them brought out easy chairs from their homes to watch it in comfort). Bringing the parade to mid-town would change the parade, but it was impressive enough last year that I think it could have done pretty well on Sixth Avenue.

I got to 41st and 6th Avenue nice and early. I didn’t think I’d have a problem finding a spot and didn’t. In fact, I seemed to be the only one aware of the parade. Or was it that everyone else was keenly aware of the parade’s absence? I saw the parade barricades were set up, but was a bit concerned that there were no cops at the various intersections. By 12:45, I knew nothing was going to happen, but stuck around just in case.

And the “just in case” never happened. Nada. Zilch. No sign of anything anywhere. Just the usual street traffic.

At least there’s another parade in the same location tomorrow. Right….? (I’m told it’s the annual Dominican Day Parade, which is a pretty good ‘un.) We’ll see.

-H

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Jonas Brothers at Bryant Park for Good Morning America

Posted August 8, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

Late yesterday I got a tip that there was something special going on. A friend from work called to let me know that the Jonas Brothers were going to be doing a concert in Bryant Park early Friday morning for Good Morning America.

Not news to me. I had already attended and blogged on the Chaka Khan show. I had heard that the Jonas Brothers were going to play.

The news was that the attendance was going to be overwhelming. I found out from my tipster that people were so eager to get in that they were camping around the park overnight.

Wow.

So just after 6am on Friday, I found myself wandering near Bryant Park to see this sort of thing. I say “near” because getting in would have entailed a long, long line with some very excited youngsters and their more tired parents.

The police had completely cordoned off the park area. I did manage to get within visual range of the stage (that’s it in the background in the above picture), but I couldn’t have stopped there as the fenced area I was in was strictly for walking through.

And there were cops everywhere stopping people from jumping the barricades. I don’t know how many times I heard a cop say, ever so politely, “EXCUSE ME!!!!! THIS IS NOT AN ENTRY AREA!!!!” All of the talking cops were graduates of the Big Booming Authoritative Voice University of Life. It got the line jumpers attention and acquiescence.

I did find the area that there were lots and lots of overnight sleepers.

I kept trying to get a shot that showed the people. Man, there were a lot of them. The next picture is about the best I got. Well, it is the best I got.

What I should have gotten was one visual that I saw when crossing the street. There was one mystified, slightly terrified, somewhat excited woman coming by and she was very tightly clutching the hands of two extremely excited and joyous young girls. It seemed to capture the moment.

Instead, I kept walking. I did an entire circuit of the park and the next photo is about as close as I could get to the stage.

As a bonus, I was getting ready to leave the area when I saw this bus pull up with a two car police escort. The windows, the few it had, were pretty opaque. However, as I was going, one girl in the company of some others seemed to spot someone in the back of the bus and just started squealing with joy and jumping with excitement. It coulda been them, but I really don’t know.

I only hope that the fans got their wish and had a great set with the Jonas Brothers. I’m not in their demographic so I really don’t know anything about them, but it seems like harmless fun for the kids and their parents and it may even be good music.

-H

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Father Fagan Park in SoHo

Posted August 7, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Manhattan, SoHo, Wanderings

I seem to be doing a lot of posts on squares and parks recently. I guess it comes from the lack of parades and my inveterate cheapness. Parks and squares are free to visit.

When I first spotted Father Fagan Park in SoHo, all I could think of was Fagin from Oliver Twist. That’s unfair to Father Fagan himself. He died in 1938 in a fire after saving two of his friends.

As parks go, this is one of the least “green” that I am aware of. It has some trees, but not many. I don’t think there’s a blade of grass on it. It’s all paved over.

The park is located at 6th Avenue and Prince Street, very close to the SoHo subway station. There’s a nice little bodega right there. I went in, but it was jammed so I left for less popular climes.

I’m so predictable in this next item: like virtually all NYC parks, it has lots of seating. Of course sitting next to busy 6th Avenue isn’t something I’d do to relax.

-H

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Redbird Subway Watching

Posted August 6, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Manhattan, Wanderings

Readers, please forgive the poor quality of the next four pictures. They are totally and completely awful and out of focus. I screwed up the picture taking but it was a rare moment and I did want to show that most elusive of subway car; the Redbird.

I was in Grand Central and going for the Shuttle to Times Square and beyond and I saw it there. Right there. On Track 1 (if you know it) was a train that I have only seen once before, but a million times in old photos and movies. It was a Redbird train car and I couldn’t figure out if it was real or a replica.

Unfortunately, it started to move just as I was arriving and with the relatively poor lighting my camera speed is slow. Hence the out-of-focus look.

From what I understand, the Redbirds were taken out of service more than five years ago and many/most of them ended up becoming part of a series of artificial reefs (actually in Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Virginia).

Like I said, they were moving by the time that I got my camera out and taking pictures. I did see one guy talking with the conductor just as I was coming up and he broke off talking with him when the train began moving. I asked him if it was real or replica. He answered that it was real and was taking some sort of bizarre route between Brooklyn and the Upper West Side. You see, the trains that are in the Shuttle line go only from Grand Central to Times Square and back. The simplest route in the subway system. But when this train left Grand Central, it was headed east.

Yeah, east. I don’t know if it was a publicity stunt to remind riders of the old heritage or not.

As the next picture shows, not all redbirds were red. The red color was apparently a graffiti repellant that came late in the game.

The last picture is the worst of the bunch, but I just liked the door windows. Very unusual. It may stem from the old practice of having a number of suppliers of subway cars. Or maybe it was an odd repair made long ago by somebody without a normal replacement door. You might also note that this car has a racing stripe so that’s another clue.

Someday I will get to the Transit Museum and get a chance to get on one.

-H

Comments: 2 Comments

Lieutenant Petrosino Square

Posted August 5, 2008 by Famous Ankles
Categories: Little Italy, Manhattan, SoHo, Wanderings

At the point that SoHo and Little Italy meet are some north-south streets (Lafayette St. and Cleveland Place) that join up. Nothing particularly special about that; but whenever streets like that join; there’s a square. And so there is.

It’s the Lieutenant Petrosino Square. And the place is undergoing an absolutely total renovation.

I encourage you to read the link to the square’s origin. I’ve always thought of it (the few times I did) as something named after a World War I or World War II local hero. Nice, but nothing particularly unknown to nearly any community in the country. But I was wrong.

The Lieutenant wasn’t a military man. He was a cop of very uncommon courage and determination. Hey, Teddy Roosevelt liked the guy and that says something about him.  (Teddy was the NYC Police Commissioner before becoming governor/vice president and president.)  Interestingly, Petrosino almost prevented the assasination of McKinley which led to Teddy becoming president.

He immigrated to the US as a boy and became a cop. Not just any cop, but a cop with a decided interest in investigating the Mafia (or Black Hand) both in the US and in Italy.  He served both as an undercover investigator and the head of the task force.

The Lieutenant went on to help imprison hundreds of criminals and, while performing his duties on assignment in Italy; was killed in the line of duty. 

The park is located just north of the old police headquarters and commemorates the life of the only NYC police office killed on duty outside the US.  It’s a tiny place and is rather intimate.  I don’t know when it will re-open, but I imagine it will be available for sitting, staring, and musing sometime late Fall.

-H

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