Two groups are supporting plans to put a trolley line down 42nd St from river to river. Vision42‘s proposal (seen above) would see the thoroughfare pedestrianised and arborised, whereas that of the Municipal Arts Society (below) would retain automobile access.

I have to say I rather like the idea of turning 42nd Street into a tree-lined pedestrian boulevard, despite doubts as to it actually happening. Though, as an avid guy-who-drives-in-Manhattan-alot I think losing a major cross street would be a hassle. New York lacks a major pedestrian area. We have small ones like Stone Street/Beaver Street area way downtown and the South Street Seaport, as well as gorgeous piazzas like Audubon Terrace (a hidden treasure which surely must be the subject of a future post). But we’re lacking a large, long, people-oriented boulevard. Adding trees would be especially wonderful as well.

Either way, it’d be nice to see ‘light rail’ (as trolleys are called these days) return to the streets of Manhattan. Whether it would be wise or prudent I’ll leave for others to decide, but the Chestertonian nostalgic in me welcomes their return.

Having some genuine space around Times Square just for people would be a definite benefit as well. It’s always terribly crowded with people and often vehicles as well. Removing 42nd as a vehicular cross street at Times Square would probably make it more effecient actually.

Of course the plans have the new trolley line turning at the Hudson river, heading south to link up with the redevelopment of Hell’s Kitchen discussed in posts past.

The latest edition of the City Journal presents a wonderful vision for Hell’s Kitchen, the Manhattan neighborhood which has been slated for a massive redevelopment. The Journal commissioned a number of the world’s leading classicists in the field of architecture to design skyscrapers that fit into the City Planning Commission’s recommendations for the new ‘Hudson Boulevard’ which is planned for the ‘Far West Side’ (the newest catchy rebranding for Hell’s Kitchen since ‘Clinton’ failed to take off).

(more…)

Armavirumque chimes in with some sad news of the Yale Club, which has some of the greatest facilities of any private club in the City, conveniently located next to Grand Central. (Although this would’ve been more convenient in the days when long-distance trains ran into Grand Central).

Anyway, James Panero can do the talking:

I seem to recall that St Andrews grads are allowed to join the Yale Club, thus I mourn for its partial deterioration. Nonetheless, presumably the Club isn’t run from the top-down but accountable to its members. They need to start a reactionary front to seize the reins of power.

Perhaps there ought to be a St Andrews University Club. Small and comfortable, owing to the comparitive scarcity of St Andreans in the metropolitan area. A library modeled on the King James Library, a dining hall modeled on Parliament Hall, a ballroom based on Younger Hall, and of course a smaller version of St Salvator’s Chapel (clubs ought to have chapels, after all). And rather than stick it in the Clubland of the 40’s, why not Fifth Avenue on the Park, or maybe Riverside Drive if we’re willing to brave the West Side. Bah, fantasy.

…to join in the fight against our cousins, the Hun. I doubt many of NYU’s ROTC students would be brave enough to don their BDUs in the streets of Greenwich Village these days. Well I don’t doubt they’d be brave enough, but they’d no doubt be more prudent perhaps. Anyhow, the ROTC program for all the colleges and universities in the City are based up in the Bronx at fortress Fordham, where the administration has been happy to play host to the future leaders of America. (Though we’ve heard the Pershing Rifles at Fordham are given to somewhat riotous behavior). This li’l bit of New York nostalgia was dug up from the NYU Archives.

Lucas de Soto triggered a bout of homesickness when he sent me this link with desktop-sized photos of Larchmont. (The first four photos are from the link). Larchmont is sort of two towns over from my dwelling place, and has been home to many good friends including Lucas and Clara de Soto and family, Adam Brenner, ‘the P’ (Retha Petrosino – my legendary high school English teacher) and her husband Fred, and others. Also, my graduation ceremony was in the Larchmont Avenue Church. (more…)

So that’s what WFB’s living room looks like…

Photo from the N.Y. Sun

The Dutch Reformed Church in Kingston, New York.

The Maine Monument has always been one of my favourite monuments in New York. It’s dedicated to the dead of the U.S.S. Maine incident and the Spanish-American War. The Monument is beautiful, not only due to its intriguing massing and beautiful sculpted work, but also because its placement in relation to Columbus Circle. It moves upward, encompassed in the lush greenery of Central Park behind it, and the bottom half projects itself forward into the Circle and creates a pleasing visual arrangement.

Above, as seen through the window of the Allen Room of the new Frederick P. Rose Hall at the AOL Time Warner Center. According to the review of opening night in the Sun, the Allen Room’s acoustics are amazing, and it looks as if Rose Hall will be an important addition to the cultural world of the City. (Note to Lucas and Adam: pencil this into your schedules).

Above the Maine Monument is pictured with the base of the Columbus column in the middle of Columbus Circle. The Circle is currently undergoing a massive refurbishment to try to make it more accesible and parklike rather than just a glorified traffic circle.

Top photo by Corin Anderson

I am a philistine. The reason I am a philistine is because when it comes to art, I only like what I find beautiful. Today in the world of art, you’re supposed to appreciate art for the ideology and thought that goes behind it. If you only like what’s beautiful, then you are a philistine. I am quite happy being a philistine and hope I remain a philistine for the rest of my life.

Nonetheless, there have been a few recent works of art I felt I ought to show you. The common theme is New York. (more…)

This photo of Albany, the capital of New York, from the 1950s shows a city that, if it weren’t for the straight streets, almost feels like a poverty-stricken Eastern European capital.

Unfortunately, it became even more like a poverty-stricken Eastern European capital when Big Brother decided to get rid of it all and replace it with a giant, heartless, government plaza.

I wonder if Governor Rockefeller visited Brasilia and thought “Gee, I ought to get me one of them!” Empire State Plaza (or Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza as it is now officially known) involved the displacement of thousands of poor people, hundreds of small businesses, bad architecture, and the humongous cost – partly owing to the omnipresent use of marble instead of more economic stones.

The result was the destruction of a large community built on a human scale in favor of an expensive, espansive, inhospitable Communist dreamland on the Hudson. A crime.

City Hall, now Borough Hall, in Brooklyn, from the Historic American Buildings Survey at the Library of Congress.

What?!? You still don’t read the New York Sun? Well you’re a fool then. I used to think the Daily Telegraph was the greatest newspaper in the English-speaking world, but now I think it’s got to be the New York Sun. It’s the quality hometown newspaper for the greatest town that ever was.

Almost like comparing the City of New York to the New York Times, the Sun is more colorful, less pretentious, loves America, and is a million times more interesting. The only way the Times is more like New York than the Sun is that the Times is so big you can never get through all of it at once.

In yesterday’s Sun there was a fascinating profile of ‘the Rev’ (photo below), the men’s room attendant in the 21 Club. It was absolutely fascinating to find out about a gem of a man such as he. Reading the Times is arduous and depressing, whilst reading the Sun is informative and pleasing.

Purchasing an online subscription to the Sun was the wisest investment I think I’ve ever made. And economical as well at a mere $16.50 per quarter (with free 4-week trial period), allowing me to cancel for the quarter of the year I can actually buy the paper edition. Most satisfying.

Perhaps you should join me in reading A history of New York, from the beginning of the world to the end of the Dutch Dynasty by Diedrich Knickerbocker, Washington Irving’s superb masterpiece of New York mythology. Above is an old rendering of Sunnyside, Washington Irving’s home in Tarrytown.

I’m in the midst of Book II, the more interesting part. However, reading books online is rather irritating, and a strain on the old eyes, so I might give in sometime soon and get Ottakar’s to order it in. (Actually, I might be able to get a nifty ‘thift edition’ on Amazon.co.uk). Sadly, Ottakar’s don’t believe in stocking the classics of New York literature. And so we must mourn for them.

St Andreans were all quite intrigued by the arrival of an Ottakar’s branch, but it’s turned out to be all in vain. Though it is bigger than any other bookshop in town, that’s not saying much, and the rumours that it would be two floors have turned out to be woefully untrue. Give me the Strand and it’s eighteen miles of books (used to be just eight miles) any day of the week.

Chain bookstores are atrocious anyhow and are best avoided when it comes to purchasing. Whenever I feel like book browsing in Westchester, if I don’t feel satisfied by the Womrath Bookshop on Pondfield Rd in Bronxville then I will browse Border’s on White Plains Road in Eastchester (or Scarsdale, as it claims), find something interesting, and order it from Womrath’s. The Strand is the best because it gives you 1) the varied selection usually only available at massive chain stores, 2) the quality of service of independent bookshops, and 3) the added bonus of used books, which are quite often better editions than more recent reissues. Eighteen miles of books, people! That’s insane.

This photo (from Wired New York) shows the massive Queen Mary 2 lodged in its Hudson River perth beside the Queen Elizabeth 2.

Old timers can find the older (and supposedly haunted) RMS Queen Mary permanently docked in Long Beach, California.

With all the Yanks that are at St Andrews these days, I have a proposal to make. We infiltrate and take over the British Schools and Universities Club, raise some funds and thereby purchase a comfortable Upper East Side townhouse to use as our club quarters, and declare that straw boaters shall permanently, yes permanently, be in season within the confines of the Club. Perhaps the straw boater bit is a bit of an affectation, but otherwise it might be a sound idea.

It’s an idea at least. Perhaps I’ll just start my own private club (a la Boodle’s). And speaking of Boodle’s, the Foreign Aid Society of BASMOM recently held their annual dinner at Boodle’s. Anyone have any clue what sort of order or whatnot the sacerdotal chap in the middle would belong to? I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such a get-up myself. Though I remember seeing two priests from the Brompton Oratory in Country Life that were dressed vaguely similar.

Yet another reason why Christopher Bertram and I need to write the Field Guide to the Catholic Church.

Photos: FAS/BASMOM

… not yet gone. Cardinal Egan and his abomination squad have begun demolishing the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle in Harlem. St. Thomas is one of New York’s architectural gems, especially known for its perpindicular gothic vaulted ceiling. It has been determined that the stained glass, the worth of which may reach into the millions, cannot be removed, and so will be lost with the rest of the church. The altar is already gone, although in honesty, it was the least attractive feature at St Thomas, a bit frilly.

Preservationist M.H. Adams: The church is “the most significant structure to be destroyed in the city since Penn Station.”

Anti-Abomination.com quips “At least the moneychangers didn’t try to sell the temple.”

Gabriel Meyer, the fourth generation at Mayer of Munich (the firm that made St. Thomas’s windows), told Cardinal Egan in a letter:

But it would seem that Egan’s bureaucracy will trump history, Christian charity, and appreciation for beauty. The property will not be sold, but will be replaced by apartments to bring revenue into the Archdiocesan treasury. Cardinal Egan has done much since he ascended to the episcopal throne of our great metropolis. By this, and many other actions, he has shown his allegiance, and it is not to Christ.

“As this new nation grew from weakness to strength to world power, the hand of Divine providence was always humbly sought and thankfully acknowledged. But today, we meekly watch as cultural revolutionaries try to destroy the purest of our traditions… It’s time to tame the liberal elite.”
Dr. Marilyn O’Grady, Conservative Party candidate for the United States Senate

This November, New York will face its first serious three-way U.S. Senate race in (my) living memory. Liberal incumbent Chuck Schumer is being challenged by fellow liberal Howard Mills as well as by a conservative, Dr. Marilyn O’Grady.

The politicos among the audience will remember that a similar situation in the 1970’s resulted in the Conservative Party candidate Jim Buckley defeating both the liberal Democrat and liberal Republican candidates to capture one of the Empire State’s two Senate seats.

I think the chances of this happening again are somewhat smaller today. Unfortunately, this time around the two-liberals-and-a-conservative model will likely split the block of voters who normally vote Republican rather than split voters that are doctrinally liberal. Shame on the NYGOP for having so many willy-nillies among its ranks!

A number of commentators have weighed in on the printed page about the “end of the electoral alliance” between the Republican and Conservative Parties. It hasn’t really ended, per se. The Conservative Party is just refusing to endorse Republican candidates that aren’t conservative, which is one of its founding purposes, and something it should have done in the recent gubernatorial election.

Check out Marilyn’s website here, and the Conservative Party’s rather lacklustre site here. (Both links are also on the sidebar at left).

Well folks, another entry is long overdue, and it will surprise you not that my computer is still out. As such, the unanswered emails are piling high, but I promise they will be taken care of.

Reading.

I’ve finished Buckley’s Miles Gone By and I have to say I found it immensely enjoyable. It is a collection of biographical musings from across the years, akin to his previous Nearer, My God. The former, I’m glad to report, avoids the slight haphazardness of the latter, perhaps because it is much longer and the selections included are well grouped. One of the tales which I particularly enjoyed was of WFB and Brent Bozell (whose brother is in Solesmes) at Yale. WFB and some cronies had piled there money together to purchase an aircraft, which Buckley and Bozell one day landed on the great lawn of the Ethel Walker School, where Buckley’s younger sister was studying. Upon disembarking the aircraft, they were promptly invited to tea with the headmistress. The audio CD which accompanies the book is a mere fancy.

Of Paradise and Power was particularly enlightening. Though Mr. Kagan’s general supposition about the difference in American and European worldviews (as well as Europe achieving a Kantian perpetual peace only by existing under the wing of the United States, a Hobbesian leviathan) seems quite well thought out, I did find myself disagreeing with one or two of his conclusions. Plus it irritated me when he referred to Britons as Europeans. Such silliness.

Speaking of silliness, I’ve started reading Wodehouse. Bought Young Men in Spats, a collection of tales from the Drones Club, and a volume of three of the Jeeves-and-Wooster novels. So far, both are thoroughly enjoyable.

et cetera…

I was very pleased to catch up with Mr. Nicholas Merrick last night, via whom I also ran into Mssrs. Simon Tuchman and Steven Lagotte. Good old Nicholas, I’m very pleased to say, is not a Buddhist as was previously thought for some unknown reason, and Deo gratias Simon is no longer of the Marxian persuasion in terms of economic thought and whatnot. Floreat Thorntona!

Michael Ulsterman (as he is known to me), our favourite Oirishman, was in town recently and I was very pleased enough to take him out for a bite at Café Lalo, one of Manhattan’s finest eateries (as well as the locale where I inadvertently stood up Brearley girl Buffy Breed on accounts of my not knowing what day of the week it was). Michael, though a liberal, is a Unionist through-and-through, and has a very sharp, sardonic wit that I hope will soon grace the pages of the Mitre. I think the first time I went to Lalo’s was with Jessy Lewis, Jessie Smyth, and Peter Scott (and was the other Peter there as well?). Jessy is now at Brown, which I’m informed she is enjoying much more than her premier year at Barnard; I just spoke to young lady Smyth (Univ. of Penn.) a week or so ago; and last I heard of Peter Scott he was on the May Ball committee at King’s College Cambridge. Not bad, not bad at all.

Particularly enjoyed the recent Kens Club correspondence.

Got to chat with Nicholas Vincent on his birthday (Aug 1) whilst he was minding Japanese children in Oxford with the indefatigable D. P. Atheist Mr. Vincent threatened to don shorts to evensong at Christ Church Cathedral, but Mr. Prior threatened a walloping and Nicholas was brought into line. (I know! Shorts at evensong! What will they think of next?)

Lastly, and mournfully…

Our prayers go out to Lindsay Mucka, whose father died only a few days ago. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.

TODAY I WAS wondering how many daily newspapers there actually are in New York. I thought I knew all the English ones, the Spanish ones, and that there were a few Chinese ones as well. So my vague idea was somewhere around seven or eight.

After turning to the Encyclopedia of New York and the internet, by my count there are thirty-five dailies in New York, printed in nine different languages!

Eighteen English, five Chinese, three Korean, three Spanish, two Greek, one Italian, one Polish, one Russian, and one Ukrainian. That’s a very large number of newspapers for one city to sustain, though it ought to be remembered many of the language papers are purchased widely in other areas. Still, I wonder if Tokyo, Mexico, Seoul, Sao Paolo, Mumbai, and the other megacities out there have as many daily newspapers.

The eighteen English dailies by founding date are: (more…)

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