Around Zuccotti Park there were tons of different News casters, cameras, and police, even horses, to secure the area. The protestors have completely inhabited this park as their grounds for reaching out to anyone who is willing to listen. I was honestly surprised when we got there, when I had heard that the protesters had taken over a park and it was becoming unsanitary because people were urinating everywhere etc., I had in my head an area as big as Central Park’s many great open lawns. I expected to not be able to move on Wall Street, and that the street would be completely bombarded with people pushing and shoving to have their own space. Instead I saw an area nowhere near as large, with many different kinds of people. There were the revolutionists preaching from the street corner to passerbys, the hippies barefoot surrounding candles dancing to their own beat, the homeless people taking advantage of the free food and a place to lay down and not seem out of place, and a group of people playing music as if it were a festival. The signs that people held up ranged from economic issues related to CEO’s on wall street, issues with the national debt, issues about past presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush, people preaching love and peace, and even a sign that stated “ The Police only serve and protect the rich”, which makes me laugh considering they are surrounding a group of middle to lower class people who are using their right to protest, to make sure that no fights break out, and that no one gets out of hand to PROTECT them. They are not secret service huddling over CEO’s as they walk through the crowds so they don’t get spit on. One of the most disturbing things I saw was a mother with her two very young children, about 8 and 10, holding signs on the street corner. Besides the fact that she is exploiting these children, trying to make people walking by feel bad because they are young and in fear of not having work when they’re older (which if they get a college education the unemployment rate is about 4%, and if they choose to become educated in an area that is in need of jobs at the time, instead of choosing a random area of work, they could very well have a job very easily), these children do not understand what their signs even truly mean. I understand that they are helping their mother support a cause, but she is putting her children in danger considering this area could at any moment become violent with fighting, where police involvement may be necessary.
Wall Street in the 1600’s was actually just that, a wall. Its original use was to protect the Dutch from the British, eventually the wall was torn down and the wooden planks used to build the wall were used by the people for lumber (BG, 64).
After walking through Wall Street we went into the Federal Hall National Memorial. The fact that George Washington was taken into office in this building is really amazing to think about. I never knew that the U.S. government was truly started in New York City, though very shortly after it was moved to Philadelphia (BG, 69). The building now is a place where people can walk through and see timelines, photos, and recreations of what the build was like centuries ago. Though I know this building has a lot of meaning to the United States government, I found the exhibit inside to be boring. There wasn’t much to look at and it wasn’t very exciting.
Next we walked down to where the World Trade Center once stood. It’s completely closed off due to construction, but you can still see the new building being made, though on a foggy day you couldn’t even see where the building’s top was. We walk around and over a bridge to where the World Financial Center is. Inside resides the Winter Garden which has palm trees from the Sonoran desert. This area was destructed after the World Trade Center attacks, but was quickly rebuilt in 2002 and reopened with new flooring, new palm trees, and a huge glass window at the end of the grand stairway that overlooks the construction being done on the World Trade Center site (BG, 61). If you look closely you can even see the recently finished memorial for the men and woman who died during 9-11, the trees surrounding the huge waterfalls.
We were also able to stop into St. Paul’s Chapel, which after September 11th, and housing so many people in-between the attacks, to rescuing, to clean-up, now has a memorial dedicated to all the men and women lost, the first responders who were there day in and day out to help, and shows the amount of support we had throughout the country with posters hung up inside. This church originally was built as an extension of the Trinity Church for people who lived too far away to go there (BG, 77).
Before our very, very long walk down the side of the Hudson, we stopped at the Irish Hunger Memorial, which was made in honor of the Irish who came to the new world due to a potato famine in Ireland (BG, 63). This area has the actual remains of a cottage made out of stone that was brought over to New York and reconstructed and then surrounded by all different kinds of plant life that is well known to Ireland (BG, 63). I thought that this area looked misplaced in its surroundings, but at the same time I think that was the point. It is supposed to stand out and look like a piece of Ireland was just dropped down on New York City. Considering it is a self guided tour, I felt it wasn’t very eventful or had much to look at, just a beautiful view of the Hudson once you walked to the top. Next we took a nice long (extremely long), walk down the side of the Hudson. The sun started to come out and was reflecting on the water and was really a beautiful site. The only thing interfering with this stroll was our misinformed choice of clothing, and our empty stomachs. At the near end of our walk we reached the Meat Packing District. This area for years had been known for their importing of meat from boats and railroads (BG, 184). This area, being so close to Chelsea, became gentrified in the 1990’s and now has tons of high end stores and restaurants.
Walking just a little further up the road we reached Chelsea Market, home of the Food Network! This was extremely exciting for me due to my secret love obsession with the Food Network, I feel like I know the celebrities as if they were my best friends. Years ago the Chelsea Market was home to the Nabisco Company, where items such as Oreos got their beginnings (BG, 186). Nowadays the Chelsea Market houses many high end food markets, some restaurants, and a few bakeries. One bakery called Eleni’s New York, had the most delicious cupcake I’ve ever had. Filled with fresh raspberries, and topped with raspberry butter-cream, this cupcake could satisfy anyone’s sweet tooth. The moist muffin-like quality of the cake, and the sweet butter-cream cut with the tart flavors of raspberry jam mixed in was the perfect combination for a mid-day snack.
Our last ventures for the day were to walk up and down the streets of Chelsea to see all the different galleries there were. After seeing plenty of modern art throughout the different museums we’ve been to over the past few weeks, I wasn’t really looking forward to any more confusion. The first few we walked into I couldn’t help but laugh at the minimalistic art that I couldn’t possibly understand how it is considered art. As we continued walking in and out of the different galleries, they became more amusing, more outlandish, and more entertaining. One had star trek figurines, frog cookie jars, and a Mr. Peanut. Another gallery showcased more erotic x-rated “art” with videos of naked men with numerous wigs on their heads so you couldn’t see their face, along with a man having eggs cracked over his head. Another area had a large room with a fan and a parachute where every 4 minutes the fan turns on and opens up the parachute. My favorite gallery was a room where they had numerous mannequins standing with these gown –like caps covering their bodies. These gowns had everything from puppets, to birds, to stuffed animals, and sequins covering the mannequins ‘body. My view on modern art is if I could do it, I don’t respect it or considered it art. I am not artistic in the least, so anything I could do couldn’t possibly be worth much. Even if the art is extremely odd such as these mannequins, I respect the art entirely because of the time, effort, and difficulty involved in making all of these costumes. When I think of well known artists, they are well known and respected because of the thought, effort, time, vision, and difficulty of the works they produced; I feel the same standards should apply to modern art.
This week was filled with many different things we were introduced to. The protests were interesting to see, to build our own opinion of what is going on rather than just listen to what we hear on the news. Walking to see the twin towers was nice to see how far they’ve come in only 10 years. I loved seeing the meat packing district and Chelsea because these are areas I always hear about but never really knew what they were or where they were. My favorite part of these adventures is becoming more acclimated to my surroundings in New York, and finally starting to understand the layout of where everything is in reference to each other. Next week is our last class, very bittersweet, hopefully we get a nice day to celebrate the end to such a great class!
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