The Final Game at Giants Stadium

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

Randolph, New Jersey
December 5, 2009

Yankee Stadium

On Saturday, we paid our first visit to the new Yankee Stadium. Unlike our trip to Citi Field last month, we had a beautiful day. It was the tenth anniversary of David Cone’s perfect game. Cone was on hand to toss the ceremonial first pitch to Yankee manager Joe Girardi (photo below), who was his catcher on that historic day.

The Yankees are the city’s best pro team, but they have the lesser stadium. In every respect, we found it inferior to Citi Field, including food service, seating, wayfinding, traffic flow, and subway connections. After the game (a 2–1 Yankee victory), it took us about 45 minutes to exit the stadium and get into the subway, about twice as long as it took at Citi Field. Fewer of the seats are covered at Yankee Stadium than at Citi Field. I would not want to be here in the rain.

If I didn’t know otherwise, I would think the two stadiums were constructed about twenty years apart. Citi Field is state-of-the-art. Yankee Stadium already feels obsolete.

Of course, the Yankees have one thing the Mets don’t: a winning team.

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Citi Field

We paid our first visit to Citi Field yesterday. We did not try to visit Danny Meyer’s restaurants, Shake Shack and Blue Smoke (see red arrow, above). That area was packed all game long, despite the rain and a crowd well short of a sell-out. I figure we would have missed at least a couple of innings just to get there and back.

Honestly, I don’t understand the point of paying $90 for a game ticket, only to stand in line for mediocre burgers and barbecue.

The game got started (above left) and was halted in the 8th inning due to rain (above right). It later resumed, only to see the Mets lose 3–1.

Waiting in Line for the iPhone 3GS

We’re sticking with our iPhone 3G, purchased last year, but this was the line at the Soho Apple Store on Friday at around 6:00 p.m.

Scenes from the High Line

The High Line is an elevated railroad running from Penn Station down to the Meatpacking District. It was built in the 1930s to get freight trains out of pedestrians’ way on Tenth Avenue.

City planners didn’t have the best timing. The line was built just as the west side of Manhattan’s importance as a freight destination had started to wane. It saw only limited service, and had only occasional use until the last trains ran in 1980.

The line originally went all the way downtown, but the segment south of Bank Street was demolished in the 1960s, and the segment between Bank and Horatio Streets was demolished in the 1990s. What is left of the High Line ends abruptly at Gansevoort Street, in the Meatpacking District.

When I moved to New York, the High Line was considered an eyesore. The Giuliani Administration intended to demolish it, but two residents of the area, Robert Hammond and Joshua David, hatched the idea of turning it into an elevated park. It seemed absurd at first, but they found the the Bloomberg Administration considerably more receptive to the idea.

The first section of the High Line opened last week, from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street. The second section, from 20th to 30th Streets, is expected to open in 2010. The final section, from 30th to 34th Streets, is still privately owned, and its future has yet to be determined.

I paid a visit one evening last week, after work. The transformation is miraculous. I’ll describe it only briefly, and let the photos speak for themselves.

Above left: A typical section of the High Line near its southern end, where it actually passes through a former warehouse. Above right: An “amphitheater” at 16th Street looking out over Tenth Avenue.

Above: The amphitheater.

Above left: View of Chelsea Piers. Above right: Another view of the greenway.

Above: The former railroad tracks are integrated into the design.

Above left: Looking back on where we’ve come. Above right: The second section (20th to 30th Streets), currently under construction.

Above: Exit at 20th Street. There are five entrances (Gansevoort, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 20th Streets). However, during the early period, when crowds are expected to be heavy, all but the Gansevoort Street stairs are exit-only. There is also elevator access at 16th Street.

NY Mag on Far West Side Redevelopment

The cover story in this week’s New York magazine is all about Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff’s expansive plans for the Far West Side of Manhattan, particularly a new stadium for the New York Jets.

Of course, to Doctoroff it isn’t a stadium, but a multi-purpose facility for conventions, concerts, restaurants, the Olympics … and, oh yes, the Jets would play there too. I’m still skeptical about the idea, but I must admit the article makes as as good a case for the project as can be made, while also pointing out the drawbacks. Most of the arguments have been pretty one-sided, so it’s refreshing to see a feature piece that’s balanced.

A 6,000-page environmental impact statement is expected in a few weeks’ time. I’m sure it’ll make light bedtime reading.

Whitney Biennial

You're running out of time to see the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum (945 Madison Avenue at 75th St). This bi-annual exhibition of modern art captures a wide range of media and styles. The works elicit reactions ranging from "Wow!" to "Huh?" Whatever you may think of particular works, the range is extraordinary. It's best experienced if you allow the art to assault your senses directly, and ignore the curators' attempts to explain what you're seeing. Otherwise, you're likely to be distracted by mumbo-jumbo such as the following (copied from the website):

While the Biennial represents the work of individual visions, it is also more than that. Given that the curators themselves come from somewhat different generations, it is not surprising that the leitmotif of this Biennial is intergenerational dialogue, a conversation that is based on distinct commonalities and threads of influence extending in both directions--from older to younger artists, and vice versa. In addition, the curators have proposed certain affinities shared by subgroups among these artists, and although the exhibition does not have a thematic structure per se, it has an inner coherence. Upon discovering links between such diverse artists, the curators in effect cried "Eureka!" realizing that distillation is as much about discovery as it is about invention.

That certainly clears it all up. Why not just enjoy the art instead! The exhibition officially closes today (May 30th), but signs at the Whitney indicated several of the galleries are being extended another couple of weeks.

Olympics Plan Advances

New York City’s bid to host the 2012 Olympic Summer Games cleared a hurdle today, when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) narrowed the field from nine cities to five. Paris, London, Madrid, and Moscow join New York in the final round, with a decision expected in July 2005. Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig and Havana fell out of contention.

The decision was not really in doubt, given the well publicized conclusions of an IOC technical committee, which found “a high level of confidence” that Paris, London, Madrid, and New York could stage the games successfully. It found Moscow’s capabilities just barely adequate, so the inclusion of Moscow in the final five is about the only surprise. The report found that the other four cities “do not have the requisite level of capability at this time.”

Bookmakers have installed Paris as an 11-10 favorite to land the 2012 games, with London at 5-4, Madrid 7-1, New York 8-1, and Moscow 20-1. Paris scored highly on all of the IOC’s criteria, it has already been through the bid process twice (1992 and 2008), and it hasn’t hosted an Olympics since 1924. New York suffers because Vancouver, B.C., has already been awarded the 2012 Winter Games, and the IOC doesn’t like to hold consecutive games on the same continent. New York’s bid has other problems. Significant infrastructure, much of it as yet unfunded, would need to be built between now and 2012. The Olympic bid has garnered at best lukewarm public support, and internationally there could well be an anti-American backlash among the highly politicized IOC voters, because of the Iraq invasion.

One major piece of unbuilt infrastructure is the Olympic Stadium, officially known as the “New York Sports and Convention Center.” Promoters chose that name to deflect attention from the fact that, should the Olympics bid fail, the facility will be primarily known as the new home of the New York Jets. The Jets are proposing to contribute $800 million of their own money, but they also expect about $600 million of public money, and some community leaders are skeptical about appropriating such a hefty sum so that a profitable football team can play eight home dates a year.

The stadium design was unveiled today. It’s a thing of beauty - at least in the artist’s renderings. The Jets and Deputy Mayor Doctoroff desperately hope to break ground before next July, both to demonstrate to the IOC that New York’s Olympics plans are real, and to give the stadium a raison d’etre other than hosting Jets football games.

The Jets are clearly eager to demonstrate that the stadium is more than just corporate welfare for a carpetbagging football team. They say:

The NYSCC will have something for everyone in the neighborhood. Beyond the projected schedule of 17 stadium events, 30 conventions, and two super-events per year, the Center will host daily events and activities for the members of the community and visitors.

Along 34th Street, the full city block will be dedicated to a grand public space, ceremoniously connecting the Hudson River and the Highline to 34th Street. The revitalized 34th Street corridor will feature a promenade transforming one of the city’s most overcrowded streets to provide pedestrians with a peaceful and stunning view of the stadium and river, amid trees, gardens and benches. The promenade will also conveniently provide street level access through a series of ramps and stairs around the Center and onto the Highline as it threads its way south.

I remain highly skeptical that the new stadium will really enjoy that much use, and with the Olympics bid remaining a long-shot, it’s a dubious investment.

She's Fired....Again!

The Apprentice's villainess extraordinaire, Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, has managed to lose yet another job. Clairol had cast her in a shampoo commercial, but the company issued an abrupt about-face after receiving a torrent of complaints, concluding that a serial liar wasn't a good spokesperson for their products. The undaunted Omarosa did land a cameo on the NBC-TV soap opera, Passion.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, Omarosa's fifteen minutes are almost up.