Somewhere on the edge of Chinatown and LES, the landscape started to turn for the better, with some trees and shrubbery and more park-like details (graceful lampposts, interesting wrought-iron fencing, old wood and steel benches). Then, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, we saw something that looked like it was transported directly from the 1964 World's Fair...
In an instant, I was 9 years old again, dreaming of a Jetson-inspired future of curvy architecture and galaxy-like designs. You know, I've read recently that the 1964 World's Fair was not that successful, didn't live up to the expectations in place at the time, especially for those who remembered the 1939 World's Fair on the same grounds. Well...you would have never known it by me. I adored the World's Fair and as it was about a 20-minute drive from my house, I badgered my folks and mom's "not married" older sister, Aunt Angie, into taking me there at least for or five times that hot and amazing summer. I just could not get enough of any of the rides and attractions that highlighted "the space age," progress, what life will be like in 25 years -- 1990 seemed so far away then! By the next year of the fair, dad was dropping me off at the gate and I would spend the day visiting my very favorite pavilions: GE's "World of Tomorrow," General Motors; the New York State Pavilion, with the giant relief map of the current New York City (now the Queens Museum, with that same map, updated and recently refurbished). Given that I'm headed to Rome next month, this might sound odd but, the one pavilion I didn't care for was the one where Michelangelo's Pieta was housed. I only visited when my mom (a devout Catholic who had no real interest in Renaissance sculpture, but felt it was a religious obligation to visit the statue every time she went to the Fair) or someone who had never been to the Fair before was with me. Even then, I was an unofficial World's Fair Tour Guide...I knew where everything was and the fastest way to get to them and the best time to avoid the lines. I loved that place...and all the wonders it held.
The only time since that I felt anything similar was the first time I visited Epcot Center at Disney World. I was in college then and had never been to Disneyland in Anaheim (though knew plenty about it thanks to "Uncle Walt" and "The Wonderful World of Disney.") I had that same "sense of anticipation and wonder" about what the future could hold visiting the various areas, and was especially charmed by an exhibit and, at that time, the radical "IMAX" theater experience about Jules Verne, where you really felt like you were in the movie, roving the French countryside in the late 1800s in a hot air balloon with the fabulous French futurist. Sad to say, subsequent visits to Epcot were never as "wonder-filled" and I don't have that same exhilarating feeling about the future as my 10 year and 20 year old self...wonder why?
All the above digressing is leading me further away from my first "meeting" this summer with Mayor Lindsay.
As I'm scurrying all over the above structure to take photos from every angle, I learned that it is actually the East River Park band shell (did I mention that we were now in East River Park) that I'd heard about from time to time, but never saw or knew where it was.
And, nearby was a board honoring John V. Lindsay who, as mayor of New York City in the middle-to-late 1960s, created this park and the band shell and some nearby walkways that also have that same late 50s, early 60's space age design. It's funny that my house isn't decorated in that style because I loved it so much (I was almost tempted to buy one of those "constellation" clocks with all the spokes and spheres and Saturn-like rings around it when I was in San Francisco recently, but refrained as it really wouldn't go with our --sort\of -- Country French decor). But, I also love Art Deco and Art Nouveau...I wish I had four houses -- our current one and three others that I could decorate one each in the aforementioned styles.
After talking about the history of the Promenade and Lindsay's part in it, it went on to tout the restoration of this area. Unfortunately, it looks like the recession has once again played havoc with this walk's beauty, as the entire area -- band shell, stands, walkways -- looked quite a bit "worse for wear" upon closer inspection.
Now, here's my second encounter with John V. Lindsay this summer. I ran into him at a special exhibit about his political life and times at the Museum of the City of New York (easily my favorite non-art museum) that is still going on (until October 3, in conjunction with a book just published called "America's Mayor" and a PBS special that I don't think has aired yet). While I was a youngster then and certainly remember a bit about him -- fairly handsome and into culture and acting -- I really knew "next to nothing" about his background and about most of the issues in which he was embroiled as New York City's Mayor. While he was on quite a roll through the mid-sixties, the end of the decade was another matter, fueled most by racial unrest and the Vietnam War. I kinda recall him keeping a lid on racial tensions in Harlem after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., but what I didn't know is how much of a urban preservationist he was -- right up there with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassiss. It was he who worked with Jackie O to create the Landmarks Preservation Committee and also to help save some of Broadway's venerable old theaters from the developer's wreaking ball. I can't recall everything he did that has borne great fruit for all of us who enjoy Manhattan's cultural and architectural landscape today, embodied by the "turn of the century" and earlier mansions, homes and apartment buildings that still exist, and great public edifices like Grand Central Terminal -- and small but significant areas like the East River Park Promenade. On the museum's website are tours and lectures being given that shows what a great...and largely unsung...urban preservationist and champion John V. Lindsay was. Huzzah!
Soooo, we kept walking, still not along the shoreline, but certainly within sight line of it. The area was getting lusher and more park-like, and the Williamsburg Bridge was coming into prominent view:
But, I don't think NG or I were prepared for what was coming just around the next bend in the path...
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