My latest column looks at the first leg of my road trip to New Orleans. Overall the trip was a great success. I got to see interesting parts of the country and spend a few days in New Orleans with Melissa Lewis, poet extraordinaire.
It’s important to get outside of the city, especially in the summertime when the heat is particularly unforgiving of urban areas. Just to maintain one’s own sanity, get out and breathe the fresh air and step on green grass. Sit under a tree by yourself in a yard or forest.
The more one travels America, the more one loves but is frustrated by America. This is a beautiful country populated by great people, but I can’t help the overwhelming feeling that we have been heading in the wrong direction as a country for quite some time now. I try to address some of this in my column, but will have more of that in Part II.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Thursday, July 07, 2005
No Olympics? No Problem.
Yesterday New Yorkers got the news we’ve been waiting for: the 2012 Olympics will not be coming to New York City. Few were surprised and fewer were disappointed, as the Olympics promised to be a financial disaster for the city.
New York doesn’t need the Olympics. We already have millions of tourists coming here every year. We already have enough facilities in the greater metropolitan area to host the Olympic Games. In light of this, it looked more and more like a well-crafted excuse to give away large parcels of real estate and tax dollars to private developers.
While the stadium plan for the West side of Manhattan fortunately fizzled, the plans to destroy the Prospect Heights area of Brooklyn with the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards development project continue unabated. One of the borough’s most interesting neighborhoods will be destroyed by this project. The effort to blight the area in advance of construction has already taken its toll.
The Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project threatens to be another sad chapter in city history unless we can stop it. Also, whatever happens to be built over the West side rail yards, it likely won’t benefit the average New Yorker one bit – just like the proposed stadium.
New York doesn’t need the Olympics. We already have millions of tourists coming here every year. We already have enough facilities in the greater metropolitan area to host the Olympic Games. In light of this, it looked more and more like a well-crafted excuse to give away large parcels of real estate and tax dollars to private developers.
While the stadium plan for the West side of Manhattan fortunately fizzled, the plans to destroy the Prospect Heights area of Brooklyn with the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards development project continue unabated. One of the borough’s most interesting neighborhoods will be destroyed by this project. The effort to blight the area in advance of construction has already taken its toll.
The Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project threatens to be another sad chapter in city history unless we can stop it. Also, whatever happens to be built over the West side rail yards, it likely won’t benefit the average New Yorker one bit – just like the proposed stadium.
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