Skip to main content

2007: The Flâneur's Return

When I started walking the streets of Manhattan in the summer of 2007 I had little idea where the streets would take me. I had recently quit an isolating desk-confining job on the Upper East Side, and all I wanted to do was walk. I started walking everywhere - down Broadway to the Battery and up to Bryant Park, through the museums and Chelsea galleries, up and down the Bowery and through the Ramble of Central Park. As my legs grew stronger, I walked over the bridge to Brooklyn and back. I lost 20 pounds in two months, and I saw beautiful things.

Walking opened up a world that my previous life had shuttered, and at some point I became the flâneuse, one with a twang and some crazy red boots. Walking brought me back to the dusty roads of my identity and kick-started my imagination. Several art exhibits that I saw along the way featured images of my newly discovered flâneur heritage, and I felt part of the world again.

As I look back on the year, 2007 brought good news for walkers of the streets. Studies of walkable cities and of the health benefits of walking made for some powerful arguments. Cities need to replace carbon-emitting vehicles with mass transit, bike lanes, and sidewalks, and for those who cannot walk, we need to demand accessibility. A long look at the work of Jane Jacobs reaffirmed the neighborly goodness of pedestrian-friendly streets. Walking off any street helps fight the war on obesity.

New York makes walking glamorous, hallelujah, and for those of us who live here, it's a great affirmation. I've lived in cities where walking was considered the pitiful last resort of the unfortunate, a shameful sign that your car had broken down. Here, on the other hand, runway models, window shoppers, designers, brokers, writers on strike, and all kinds of differently-dressed pedestrians inhabit our cinematic imagination. Greta Garbo, the most glamorous movie star of her time, chose New York at mid-century to live out her remaining years, and all she wanted to do was walk. Me, too.

In subsequent posts, I will highlight some of my favorite discoveries of 2007. While I do get around - I've walked approximately 500 miles over the course of the past year, I will demur from describing these choices as "Best of." I didn't see everything I planned. There's always next year. I'll also suggest how to lose 20 pounds by the vernal equinox. In the immediate future, a lovely bottle of French absinthe and a little bubbly will come out tonight.

For those new here, welcome to Walking Off the Big Apple. For loyal readers waiting for me to wake up from hibernation, thank you, thank you, thank you. Happy New Year, and I look forward to 2008.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Unknown11:57 PM

    Gee, that's funny. I hitchhiked to NYC when I was 20, walked over to Times Square, and said "Now this is the place." I spent the month I was there, before my draft number came up, walking all over town, seeing everything. I had no trouble at all with traffic, saw no need for traffic calming BS, or safety zones, or converting streets to mini-parks, or any of the the other nonsense the politically-correct babies of the 21st century need.
    New York was a great place because it was free and the people knew how to handle business.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

25 Radical Things to Do in Greenwich Village

A list of 25 things to Do in Greenwich Village with history of protest, old cafes, and signs of change. Hipstamatic iPhone images of contemporary Greenwich Village by Walking Off the Big Apple (Revised and updated.) Flipping through  Greenwich Village: A Photographic Guide by Edmund T. Delaney and Charles Lockwood with photographs by George Roos, a second, revised edition published in 1976, it’s easy to compare the black and white images with the look of today’s neighborhood and see how much the Village has changed. A long shot photograph of Washington Square taken up high from an apartment north of the park, and with the looming two towers of the World Trade Center off to the distant south in the background, reveals a different landscape than what we would encounter today.    On the north side of the park, an empty lot and two small buildings have since given way to NYU’s Kimmel Center and a new NYU Center for Academic and Spiritual Center Life. The Judson Me...
Read more

Museums in New York Open on Mondays

UPDATED July 9, 2024 Please consult the museum websites for changes in days and hours. • Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)  10:30 am - 5:30 pm •  The Metropolitan Museum of Art  10 am - 5 pm • Whitney Museum  10:30 - 6 pm •  American Museum of Natural History  10 am - 5:30 pm • Jewish Museum  11 am - 6 pm • International Center of Photography (ICP)  11 am -7 pm • Guggenheim  10:30 am - 5:30 pm •  The Museum of the City of New York  10 am - 5 pm •  Cooper Hewitt  10 am - 6 pm •  Neue Galerie  11 am - 6 pm The Whitney Museum of American Art General Information  American Museum of Natural History Central Park West and 79th Street See the post, Big Things to See at the American Museum of Natural History . Cooper Hewitt 2 East 91st St. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 1071 Fifth Ave Jewish Museum 1109 Fifth Ave The Metropoli...
Read more

10 Short Walks from Grand Central Terminal

(updated March 2017) Famously crowded Grand Central Terminal functions as a major crossroads for the city, hosting busy commuters as they come and go from the suburbs via the Metro-North Railroad or within the city via a few subway lines, but the terminal also happens to be a good place to launch short walks. With its south side fronting E. 42nd Street and its massive structure interrupting Park Avenue, Grand Central provides quick access to many of the city's most well-known attractions. The New York Public Library and Bryant Park are only a couple of blocks away from the terminal, a quick jaunt on 42nd Street. And from there, Times Square is just another block or two farther west of the library, its neon shimmering in the distance. One wonders, standing near the intersection of 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, how many souls have been lured away from their well-meaning library studies by the beckoning lights of the Theater District. Grand Central Terminal : Before setting...
Read more

From Penn Station to New York Landmarks: Measuring Walking Distance and Time in Manhattan

(revised 2017) How long does it take to walk from Penn Station/Madison Square Garden to well-known destinations in Manhattan? What are the best walking routes ? What if I don't want to see anything in particular but just want to walk around? In addition to the thousands of working commuters from the surrounding area, especially from New Jersey and Long Island who arrive at Penn Station via New Jersey Transit or the Long Island Rail Road, many people arrive at the station just to spend time in The City. Some have questions. Furthermore, a sporting event may have brought you to Madison Square Garden (above Penn Station), and you want to check out what the city offers near the event. This post if for you.  The map below should help you measure walking distances and times from the station to well-known destinations in Manhattan - Bryant Park , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , the Empire State Building , Times Square , Rockefeller Center , Washington Square Park , the High Line ...
4 comments
Read more

25 Things To Do in Chelsea

On the High Line, with the Whitney Museum of American Art (revised and updated 2018) The phenomenal popularity of the High Line on the West Side has no doubt introduced many visitors to the pleasures of  Chelsea , the multifaceted eclectic neighborhood that stretches out below. On the west side of the rails, between W. 14th and W. 29th Streets or so, the  Chelsea Gallery District  is home to hundreds of contemporary art galleries in repurposed warehouses. New luxury residences rise up around these spaces, taking advantage of the stunning Hudson River views. On the east side of the line, the iconic Empire State Building comes into the picture, but closer in, the Gothic Revival outlines of the General Theological Seminary represent the neighborhood's roots in an earlier century. Chelsea is a remarkable neighborhood bound together by an artistic and visual history, but it's also a community held together by social institutions - schools, historic houses of worsh...
Read more

25 Things To Do Near the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

(updated 2016) The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) at 11 W. 53rd Street is near many other New York City attractions, so before or after a trip to the museum, a short walk in any direction could easily take in additional experiences. Drawing a square on a map with the museum at the center, a shape bounded by 58th Street to the north and 48th Street to the south, with 7th Avenue to the west and Park Avenue to the east, proves the point of the area's cultural richness. (A map follows the list below.) While well-known sightseeing stops fall with these boundaries, most notably Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the great swath of famous Fifth Avenue stores, cultural visitors may also want to check out places such as the Austrian Cultural Forum, the 57th Street galleries, the Onassis Cultural Center, and the Municipal Art Society. The image above shows an intriguing glimpse of the tops of two Beaux-Arts buildings through an opening of the wall inside MoMA's scu...
Read more