26th Mar 2004
Uneven Surfaces
Manhattan is an obstacle course for pedestrians. A constant,
physical, in your face reminder that you can never relax and take
anything for granted.
What’s under that snow? It could be a manhole cover jutting out of
street a few inches (no doubt trying to escape, wanting to be with its
relatives in sunny climes with well paved streets) It could be a strip
of steel that’s come loose from a curb. Is it a pothole? A forgotten
ConEd worker in an access hole, still wondering when the foreman will
call for a break?
One of the coolest examples of uneven surfaces in the city is the
marble steps of the main library. Little grooves are worn into them
from countless visitors of wide-ranging ilk: literary types, tourists,
students so serious they will surely burst, some goof-offs, workers
playing hooky (sitting in the reading room, drafting their own damn
business plan, ready to chuck it and start their own gig, so that
their future employees will play hooky at the library), locals that
just need some space - a break from their 400 square feet back at the
sweltering 5th floor walkup, and a few that are just hoping that the
library can be some sort of book-bar pickup spot.
More uneveness. Watch those stairs in the subway station. Some of
them are out to get ya! Some of the tracks are uneven, giving rise
that ever popular “Subway Sway” dance (just think “drunken out of
control in-law”, except people on the subway are a lot quieter)
My apartment has uneven floors. I’m afraid to do the test of Rolling
a Marble. It might hit escape velocity. Everything in New York is
exercise; even getting from one part of a room to another. It’s just
that vertically oriented.
Perhaps it’s all fitting. New York doesn’t make much easy. (ok, well
I can think of a dozen counterexamples, but don’t make me bring those
up just now, like how easy it is to get a hot dog or find a one
of the 128 Starbucks in Manhattan) Perhaps the surface, the lumps and bumps, the
ever-present danger of tripping headlong into the path of a speeding
taxi, or the Cop I saw trip off a curb in Columbus Circle, landing on her
baton, are all important reminders.
They’re all reminders to keep alert, to keep that big-city intensity
going. Don’t get comfy. Always push (not literally, mind you,
because there’s another vibe in New York going on, which is the
constant balance of civility and aggression). Always assume the road
will be bumpy, and then watch some of the Amazonian 5′11″ women in
high heels navigate it with such style and grace that it makes you
shake your head in wonder.
They could never smooth out New York. If all of the curbs, streets,
and stairs got fixed (is fixed the correct word here? no! that
implies something is broken), New Yorkers would go soft! Can’t have that.
