This post on Curbed about “scaffolding in New York”:http://curbed.com/archives/2009/11/19/scaffolding_doesnt_save_it_kills.php resonated a lot with my feelings about one aspect of New York. Before I moved here, my mental picture of a typical New York street had scaffolding over it. My mental picture of midtown (where I don’t spend a lot of time) still has that scaffolding over the streets, especially 7th avenue and Broadway. A lot of it must be unnecessary. I haven’t been to Hong Kong in 20 years, so I can’t make any comparison there, but as they say, there’s nowhere near this much scaffolding in London or Paris.

I sometimes read people saying that they don’t like the ‘boxed in’ feel of Manhattan. On the whole, I don’t really get that – what Manhattan loses in a little light from the tall buildings it makes up for by having such a high portion of public spaces. And unlike most parts of America, you can use those public spaces without wearing 2 tons of metal armour. But in those neighbourhoods where you’re always walking under a nine foot high quickly constructed wood ceiling, I can see the downside. The solution is just less scaffolding!