I lived in New York for 11 years, from 1968 through 1982. You know why New York is addictive? It's a video game before there were video games. Of course, you can retreat to your apartment and hopefully find as much silence and solitude as you need, but as long as you are on the street there is always something going on, something that needs to be evaluated, something that needs to be understood. This experience is provided absolutely free of charge and in unlimited quantities.
My favorite New York street moment of those 11 years is when I saw a riderless runaway police horse galloping down 45th St headed toward 10th Ave. The horse was a thoroughbred type, and probably not the best choice for police work. I knew if the horse got to 10th Ave there was almost certain to be a horrific accident. Worried, I took a couple of steps into the street, but the horse just swerved away from me. [I must point out that I have enough background with horses that I know that none of them will deliberately run into a human being. Horses actually have to be trained to joust, an activity that runs against their instincts.]
Then, out of nowhere came a yellow cab driving 45 miles an hour down the street. It passed the horse and swerved to a screeching halt in front of it. The horse reared up and fell on its ass. Quite frankly I don't remember what happened next, but the horse never got to 10th Avenue.
It was the best piece of driving I have ever seen in real life.
I've always been fascinated by the opposite end of that question, early examples of intentional planning. I grew up in the other Manhattan, founded in 1855. The original plat included Market Squares every few blocks, basically strip malls. The Market Squares were never used and eventually those blocks were converted to ordinary two rows with an alley. A few strip districts later evolved naturally, such as Aggieville next to K-State.
I lived in New York for 11 years, from 1968 through 1982. You know why New York is addictive? It's a video game before there were video games. Of course, you can retreat to your apartment and hopefully find as much silence and solitude as you need, but as long as you are on the street there is always something going on, something that needs to be evaluated, something that needs to be understood. This experience is provided absolutely free of charge and in unlimited quantities.
My favorite New York street moment of those 11 years is when I saw a riderless runaway police horse galloping down 45th St headed toward 10th Ave. The horse was a thoroughbred type, and probably not the best choice for police work. I knew if the horse got to 10th Ave there was almost certain to be a horrific accident. Worried, I took a couple of steps into the street, but the horse just swerved away from me. [I must point out that I have enough background with horses that I know that none of them will deliberately run into a human being. Horses actually have to be trained to joust, an activity that runs against their instincts.]
Then, out of nowhere came a yellow cab driving 45 miles an hour down the street. It passed the horse and swerved to a screeching halt in front of it. The horse reared up and fell on its ass. Quite frankly I don't remember what happened next, but the horse never got to 10th Avenue.
It was the best piece of driving I have ever seen in real life.
I've always been fascinated by the opposite end of that question, early examples of intentional planning. I grew up in the other Manhattan, founded in 1855. The original plat included Market Squares every few blocks, basically strip malls. The Market Squares were never used and eventually those blocks were converted to ordinary two rows with an alley. A few strip districts later evolved naturally, such as Aggieville next to K-State.
http://polistrasmill.blogspot.com/2012/10/market-squares.html