Conflicted

In my tagline for this blog, I promised you a "place of diversity." Lest I be accused of hollow words, just using a catchy phrase to sell this city and website, today I bring you a park full of flowers after Friday's meat hanging on hooks. And I did not travel to all ends of the city to find these contrasts. The park in the photo is only a short walk from the meat packing district. This is the fascinating thing about the city - it's not only the magnitude of contrasts, but also the rapid change you can find from one environment to another. Sometimes the change is even within eyeshot - particularly with a neighborhood still in transition.
Many would argue that the meat packing district has arrived and is completely gentrified. For those who believe that, I suggest you stroll along West Street at 7AM on a weekday and you will see many hard at work loading and unloading trucks full of meat parts.
But that was last week's story. Today we have flowers. Spring in New York City is a beautiful time of year (when not raining). However, like any city, spring here is not a full immersion experience. There are elements of spring, but these are tempered by the manmade world that dominates the city's landscape. This is particularly evident when one leaves the city mid season and is impacted with the sensations - almost overpowering by comparison. One can get close in New York - the wooded areas of the bigger parks go a long way towards capturing that country feeling and communing with nature.
The park in today's photo is Abingdon Square in the West Village. While there, a friend who is also new to this city exclaimed that this must certainly be one of the most beautiful parks in all of New York. To which I replied, do not be overly swayed by the display which is primarily tulips. Their life is quite short and soon this spectacular display will be much more subdued. That said, Abingdon Square is a beautiful pocket park, many of which can be found throughout the city.
You can see in my posting October 27, 2007, that my enthusiasm for Abingdon Square was a bit bridled. If my impressions and assessments of aspects, places, people and things sometimes appear conflicted and contradictory, they are - just like New York City itself ...