Today’s Headlines

  • Thanks for the shout-out. The Times article about the GWB bus station can tell us that the developer plans to increase the retail space from 30,000 to 120,000 square feet, but only that “The project will also increase the number of buses that can use the site.” Apparently our buddy William Neuman isn’t interested enough in bus riders to find out either the current capacity of the station or the planned increase.

  • Good for Ryan Dempster! If only his teammates would take a hint… this was from an article on Jeff Samardzija in Sports Illustrated over the summer:

    And so the rookie soon throws on a polo shirt over his Dark Side of the Moon tee, climbs into his black Escalade EXT and unhurriedly drives those 10 blocks, pausing to soak in the scenery, mostly the pretty girls in their summer best, and to cue up Led Zeppelin in his CD changer.

  • Crashing into a map store while lost? What a riot! And hitting two pedestrians in the process? No big deal, he only “clipped” them, they’ll live.

    Sometimes I can’t believe the NY Post.

  • Brooklyn

    On a sporting basis, I have no love for the Cubs from their 80’s rivalries with the Mets — some of my first baseball memories. But what a fantastic picture the article paints. Anyone from Chicago (I’ve never been) disagree with the depiction?

    I imagine that Ebbets Field held a similar place in Brooklyn; though less idyllic, more working-class but no less urbane and cosmopolitan.

    Contrast with the decadent, alienating pits this city has been obsessed with building.

  • Wrigley field is in the heart of one of the best neighborhoods in Chicago. I grew up there and it always amazed me how the stadium was plopped in this neighborhood and not built far out or in a downtown location. When you take the El you go right past and see right into Wrigley.

    The best part, which drives everyone crazy, no parking lot.

  • But what a fantastic picture the article paints. Anyone from Chicago (I’ve never been) disagree with the depiction?

    I’m not from Chicago, and I’m not a big baseball fan. But I lived in Chicago for a year, and Wrigleyville was always my favorite neighborhood. In addition to Wrigley Field, it also had some of the best dining and nightlife in the city. The shopping is good, the housing stock is gorgeous and the streets are walkable and well-maintained. If it weren’t for the wind – and some irrelevant personal issues – I would have definitely considered settling there. It impressed me the way that Park Slope and the West Village do.

    Like the West Village, the nightlife and the stadium tended to attract a crowd of rowdy suburbanites in cars. Like Park Slope, it attracted yuppies who treasure their cars as status symbols.

    As has been discussed on Streetsblog before, I think a big factor is the fact that there’s not much parking at Wrigley Field, and most of it is half a mile away. Contrast that with Commiskey Park (now known as “US Cellular Field”), which is surrounded by a sea of parking, and beyond that highways, railyards and housing projects.

    As “Brooklyn” noted above, Yankee Stadium and Ebbets Field (probably the Polo Grounds as well) used to be much more integrated into the neighborhoods around them. The taxpayer-subsidized conversion of parkland to parking for Yankee Stadium (well-documented on this blog) has made the stadium less like Wrigley Field and more like “US Cellular Field.” Thanks, Carrion!

  • Larry Littlefield

    I was wondering what the heck happened on 43rd Street. It was an overtime bonanza — there must have been 50 police/fire in the area yesterday morning.

    Meanwhile, environmentalists should know that Il Duce will have zero moral authority if re-elected. Everyone will feel free to get over on the city of New York and the City of New York, even those who don’t already feel that way now.

  • Not only does Ryan Dempster walk to work, he also managed to walk seven Dodgers last night while failing to last five innings.

    Not being a Cub fan, however (though I’d like to see them end their 100-year skid), I’m willing to forgive him that for setting a good example for sustainable urban living.

  • I haven’t been to every ballpark in the majors but I’ve been to a few and Wrigley Field is far and away my favorite. Most games take place during the day, the field isn’t festooned with billboards and, very much unlike Shea and Yankee stadiums, they don’t blast commercials, music and scoreboard trivia at insanely loud volumes between innings. It creates a completely different vibe. You can hear the players warming up between innings. You really get to focus on the game and just kind of relax, talk (or sit quietly) with your friend, and appreciate an afternoon. At Yankee and Shea I find myself yelling just to talk to the person sitting next to me between innings. I won’t miss those dumps.

  • James

    I’m a Riverdale resident, although I live down on Broadway near Van Cortlandt Park rather than up on the hill. The land use patterns of much of the neighborhood do indeed make walking more difficult. It’s not on a grid and the street layout does not make intuitive sense for walking. That said, the area does have good access to NYC Transit, with excellent bus service, 2 Metro North stops, and the 1 Train. You can go car-free easily if you live in Central Riverdale or down on Broadway. Fieldston, not so much. Much of the neighborhood is Scarsdale-in-the-City and a sort of suburban mentality (unfortunately) tends to prevail.

  • Niccolo Machiavelli

    So you are saying that Riverdale, instead of being “transit poor” as was the narrative in the congestion pricing debacle it is actual transit rich. I’m shocked, could that be true of other areas who fought congestion pricing?

    So if Bloomburg runs, this time, finally, actually advocating for congestion pricing in his campaign, and loses, probably because of the term-limit grab, his defeat will instead be blamed on the congestion pricing albatross. Curiouser and curiouser.