A Late Night Ride into the Canyons
A Late Night Ride into the Canyons
I love NYC in the Summer! The city puts on its shorts, tennis shoes, and becomes a small town of street bar-b-ques, free movies, free theatre, and free concerts in the parks, cruising hot bods all times of the day and generally laying back.
For those of us who choose to stay in the city from June-August, the city becomes our playground where time is irrelevant.
For me, thats bike time! 3:00 AM rides through the heart of Manhattan.
The air is sweet…yes sweet! The dusky wetness of the pavement, the light scent of tar from the streets mixed with the last vestiges of the evenings restaurant cuisines…Chinese, Indian, French, American Diner, and its all good!
2:45AM
Starting out you look around. The city is still alive, but rather than the roar of a mid-day rush, it is the hum of Metropolis rebooting itself.
Heading down Central Park West. On the right, fantastic Beaux-Art and Art-Deco buildings with names like Dakota, San Remo, Majestic, filled with sleeping Empire builders, and on your left the park itself. You feel the sudden coolness coming out of the park, the leaves captured on the breeze flick their own rhythms.
The lungs of the city.
The park is inviting in itself…dark trails and hills to race.
I begin to meld with the city that has been part of me since age 16.
Over to Broadway. Lincoln Center is dark, the fountain quiet, except for the inner circle faintly glowing green like a flying saucer. The outlines of two people sitting on the edge can just be seen. Romantic, passionate, thoughtful
like the place itself.
The Met, Avery Fisher, the Koch, the Beaumont, one of the worlds great Arts centers caught napping…where is the stage manager to just flick the switch, and turn it all on?
3:00AM
Columbus Circle, normally one of the busiest intersections in town. The connecting point between mid-town, and the Upper West Side. This morning, it's just Columbus and I.
Last year, as part of an exhibit, Artist Tatzu Nishi created a “living room” complete with furniture, rugs, and TV at the top the statue, which was “standing” on a giant coffee table. You could climb to the top and visit Columbus nose to nose. On the column is the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. He holds with his hands the tiller, and behind him rope and an anchor. Who knew???
Over to Seventh Ave. towards Times Square. Brightly lit and ready for a party! Times Square is wide awake. Its this time of day when you can still capture a little bit of the democratic spirit of the city. Construction workers are out, maintenance people are cleaning, theatre types are heading home, and even at this hour, there are a few fat Midwestern tourists being ripped off by furred up costumed cartoon characters cozily coddling up for pics and bucks!
I miss the truly “Adult” Times Square before it was all Giulianized, and made “safe” for families. No Hershey stores, Red Lobsters, or Olive Gardens, no suburban “pedestrian” malls.
Times Square was honest about who it was and what it was….part of an Adult city, smoke shops, porn stores, individually owned working stores, the cross roads of the world where only a few went to bed before 4 or 5, and restaurants and clubs were open, till the “after party” kicked in.
3:15AM
Seventh Ave. is now a straight shot downtown heading to the Financial District. The city is mine. I can feel it as the wind comes off the Hudson river, pushing me southward. I gather speed, there are few cars, and I have the green lights. I don’t want bike lanes, I want to ride down the middle of the avenue. A taxi comes just in front of me, so I grab a hold of it and fling myself forward when he turns the corner (no…do not try this at home).
No red lights, no red lights, I keep repeating. I will drive this and nothing's going to stop me till I'm done.
The city is breathing with me tonight, lights suddenly turn green just before I hit them. I can barely stay on top of my pedals, but almost there. I bear East and am swallowed into the velvety darkness of the Financial District.
The Canyons of Power.
Suddenly, everything becomes still, and quiet. The buildings wrap themselves around me, the streets are small and crooked, and looking up I can see stars above the towers.
I love the shadows of the Wall Street area. Passages and trails around every corner.
It's comforting rather than threatening.
It's an odd dichotomy knowing during the day, this is the economic engine of the world, where young brokers practically kill themselves in trades and near misses, so they too can be part of the Empire builders back up on Central Park West.
At night this is where you can feel the connection to historic NY. Of sailing ships, the port, the beginnings of commerce, colonial history, and of people first figuring out what this city might be.
4:15AM
Heading home along the Hudson, then 10th ave. looking at the river on my left, the cityscape on my right, I think of everything I have experienced and all the people I have felt over the last couple of hours, and actually feel badly for those poor souls stuck out in the Hamptons.
