Construction zone fencing

It's a fence. It's a fabric. It's a fence made of fabric! So how can I not fall for it? Plus, it's orange.











Do they have this everywhere, or just in New York? Or just in the US? Or just in the North East? And what did we do before we had it? It's so ubiquitous and captivating, it's erased my memory.

Park construction

The new phase of the Washington Square Park unnecessary (but are all the lawsuits and all the reporting in the Villager really necessary either?) makeover means the playground is wrapped in fencing and then wrapped again in mesh. For some reason it's really disorienting to be inside, the whole place looks different.



But there is something nice about the view of Judson Church through the mesh.




And it's really nice when you put your face right up to it. Mesh-fence moire.


Meanwhile, over on Lafayette there's a new pocket park being built, with lots and lots of chain link and orange caution fencing.

There's something about the construction zone and the green space being one and the same that's sort of nice. And all being overseen by the enormous woman in the left corner.

Good Fences

I just wanted to give a shout out to the Parks Department for the loving care they give to mending their fences.


Look at how many kinds of fence there are in one 3-foot stretch. Wrought iron, chain link and those wooden slats that arrive in big rolls on the back of Parks Department trucks. I can't decide if this is one complex fix or several attempts to correct the problem.


This one is hard to spot, but it's the most exquisite fence-mending. Two thin, hand-twisted wires spanning the gap horizontally.

Foreword

The pedestrian sidewalk on the Manhattan Bridge, seen from the Q

It seems it's not conventional to introduce, but to dive right in seems too abrupt. I'll try to avoid over-explication, so this doesn't end up reading like the pilot of a long-running series. But if I wasn't chatty, I wouldn't be starting a blog.

So. This is an open sketchbook. It's about sidewalks, and things on the sidewalk. About cities -- especially New York City -- and public space and personal space and how it's not easy being green. It's not an eco-art blog, but rather an art blog with urban and eco leanings.

Or at least that's what I think it is. What it really is, dear reader, we will have to wait and see.