Saturday, April 17, 2004

Tall buildings

One difference from other cities is that New York has skyscrapers reaching to the skies. You can see it from the airplane. You can gaze at them from the ground. And as you look up, you get dizzy by the height that they reach.

With brick facades, the buildings are very personable. I am more used to the glass and steel structures which predominate in the earthquake world of California. There are steel and glass structures here to be sure and they reach higher than the ones I have seen in SF.

I suppose it has been the local zoning laws which have prevented CA from having skyscrapers like these. But then again, West Coast cities are really young compared to NY. SF has not needed the space like NY has needed. Seven and a half million people live in Manhattan. In LA, I believe it was 2.5 million people spread out over a large area.

We went to Times Square last night and it was crowded like a sardine can when the theatres let out. By the way, I saw a poster of Dixie Carter in yellowface as some sort of Asian woman singing about the Far EAst. I wonder why white people still think it's okay to put on yellow face when they know and they don't dare put on blackface.

More on that later after some more reflection and cogitation.


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