Another sign of progress in the ongoing Astor Place/Cooper Square Reconstruction project... workers have painted the crosswalks on the newly paved surrounding streets...
Not sure what's next on the to-do list... the weekly construction bulletin is still dated from Aug. 12.
Thanks to Vinny & O for these photos!
I keep expecting to see the Beatles crossing single-file, with Paul in a suit and barefoot. I understand if you play a copy of "Abbey Road" backwards, you can hear it say "The East Village is dead".
ReplyDeleteFinally. As someone who lives nearby on 7th, who has seen this intersection in tatters for years, it actually looks good. My only question as a tax paying citizen of the city is why in the fuck did it take so long?
ReplyDeleteThis is not longer Astor -- but Chase -- Place. Or Cement Plaza.
ReplyDeleteVery Abbey Road
ReplyDeleteFor an area that has undergone so much construction for so many years, it's pathetic there is no pedestrian island for crossing this avenue. Intersections all over the city are being made safer for pedestrians with traffic calming structures like islands and bulbs. Terrible that the DOT didn't install one here.
ReplyDeleteThis is sarcasm right? The entire project is traffic calming. They literally removed streets.
DeleteThey had installed an island at St Marks and 3rd Ave for a few days. It was torn up and removed when they discovered the long buses could not make the turn without getting hung up by the island.
Delete5+ years of constant (and poorly done) construction in and around Cooper Union is way too much. They need to be done.
ReplyDeleteIn 2017, they'll need an excuse to keep all them Union peeps working so they will tear up the sidewalks and roads to repave and retar everything!
ReplyDeleteGo on You Tube and enter Netherlands Tunnel. It will show you how a tunnel was built under a highway over a three day period from start in finish in a several minute video time lapse. An actual and functioning tunnel. It is awe inspiring and mesmerizing. Cooper Union isn't a tunnel that was built from nothing. It is merely an intersection and yet it took almost three years if not more to rebuild it? I don't get it. Yes, while it is improved and more aesthetic, it should have taken a fraction of a three year period. NYC take note: Europeans get shit done.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part; Street is already all marked up for excavation. LOL
ReplyDeleteI remember the last time they resurfaced Ave A it was same thing. The new asphalt was still steaming, and Con Ed came along and sprayed their utility markings. A day or two later they ripped open the fresh street surface all along the avenue.
shit show
ReplyDeleteAnd here I thought it was a tribute to Blondie's Parallel Lines... Or maybe they paved over Debbie Harry like the did Stuyvesant Street and the Indian trail?!
ReplyDeleteThat's actually a giant barcode. If you scan it you get the current purchase price for the entire East Village.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to be
ReplyDeleteUnder the sea
In a pedestrian plaza
In the shade
The original stripes were supposed to be VRGlowInTheDark4DBlueToothMobileFBPMGoGoog+GlitterLaserLines, but SOMEbody also checked the "Exploding" box on the order sheet, and the whole project blew up in their faces.
ReplyDeleteAt the VERY least they could have made a pretty cool art project out of it by using rainbow colors.....but noooo.