More Scenes from Park(ing) Day 2008 New York City

I biked from Park Slope to Chelsea this morning and managed to visit eight Park(ing) spots along the way. Here’s what I found…

Four strangers engaged in an intense Scrabble game at the busy corner of Atlantic Ave. and Court St. in Downtown Brooklyn, my first stop.

The Park(ing) spot on Montague St. in Brooklyn Heights was jam packed with teenagers from St. Anne’s on their lunch break. These two played Connect Four.

The Montague St. spot was designed to accommodate all ages…

…and all species.

In Manhattan, this Park(ing) spot next to Noguchi’s Red Cube on Broadway and Liberty offered fine halal food and a front row seat to the global financial metldown.

In Soho, on Thompson between Prince and Spring, DEGW’s “City in a Box” spot was exceptionally pleasant.

Over on LaGuardia Place, a block away from NYU, the owner of Washington Square Wine and Liquor argued with these Park(ers) from the Center for Architecture that the loss of this parking spot was hurting his business. Forget that only six percent of Soho shopping trips are done by car — I didn’t have the heart to tell this upstanding merchant that if he’s having trouble selling liquor on a Friday afternoon in the middle of a college campus, Park(ing) Day is the least of his problems.  

There was less controversy on Sixth Ave. near W. 4th St. where NYU Wagner School students sunned themselves, tossed beanbags and provided cool drinks to passersby.

Christine Berthet and Ian Dutton (standing and talking at left) represented Manhattan Community Boards 2 and 4 over on Eighth Ave. and 14th St. That’s Ian’s wife Shea on the bench with the incredible red hair.

And explaining all of this to New Yorkers via NY1 was Streetswiki producer Lily Bernheimer at The Open Planning Project’s super-high concept “Open Source City Park” spot on 8th Ave. and 15th St.