Greensward

Just imagine the dim-sum dumplings!

QueensWay: New York City’s Most Controversial Potential Park

Parks: what’s there not to dislike?

A group of parks activists in Queens have been pushing “QueensWay,” a linear park that would be built atop the old Rockaway Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road in the central and southern parts of the borough. As New York Times opinion writer Eleanor Randolph put it in her pro-QueensWay piece, it “has no celebrity patrons, no Diane von Furstenberg, no Barry Diller, no big-name donors to give enough seed money to turn the park into a fashion statement.”

But with a High Line-like makeover, she wrote, “QueensWay would offer both a walkway and a bike path. There could be small shops or stands featuring cheese guava buns, dim sum dumplings, pani puri or yam fufu.” Read More

Greensward

Horsing around. (Billy Farrell Agency)

Adrian Benepe, Parks Commissioner and Carousel Aficionado

At last week’s opening of Jane’s Carousel, perhaps the only person more excited than the legion of children and Ms. Walentas herself was Adrian Benepe, the city’s Parks Department Commissioner. “I guess it comes with the territory of being a conservator of carousels,” Mr. Benepe told The Observer, finishing off the last of his bag of popcorn. By Mr. Benepe’s count, there are now at least 10, perhaps 12, carousels in the city, depending on how you count them. With the exception of one at Coney Island, all are found in the city’s parks. Read More

Art Snapshot

Art Snapshot: Rise of the Masses!

An average Joe discovers a $200 million trove of Ansel Adams negatives at a garage sale, struggling art vendors protest new regulations, and flip-flop wearing bargain hunters clamor for Lawrence Salander’s belongings. This week in art news: don’t forget the little guy.

1. YouTube Play Generates Buzz and Frustration

The jury Read More

Adrian Benepe Takes a Bow

Last week, in the basement of the American Institute for Architects, in a room that looks like a bunker designed by Le Corbusier, an audience waited to hear NYC Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe speak. Benepe is one of this year’s recipients of the Center for Architecture Award, and the lecture was organized as Read More

Danny Meyer Drops Out of Race for Tavern on the Green

Popular restaurateur Danny Meyer no longer has his eye on the late Warner LeRoy‘s illustrious Tavern on the Green in Central Park.

Bids on the city’s top-grossing eatery are due on Monday, May 18, but Mr. Meyer, an early favorite for the famous space, has decided to withdraw his name from the competition.

According to Read More