New York, Halloween, 2010

 Manhattan skyline taken from the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn. Legend has it that the shoes represent the victims of crime gangs but New York seemed a peaceful enough city. People seemed to be more worried about the economic climate and (some) about the beating the Democrats took in the mid-term Congressional elections than about crime.

Halloween is a big deal in America. The locals hang skeletons, ghosts etc from their windows or scatter fake gravestones on their lawns. Fierce cut out pumkin heads are the dominant image but in a move obviously orchestrated by Pumpkin Producers of America, the vegetable also features strongly in Thanksgiving later in November.
Caught these people on the steps of a handsome brownstone introducing the delights of touching a large pumpkin to a baby.


This character and his friend were cruising the side streets of the annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade


While in the parade itself, a massive event involving thousands of marchers, all hell was breaking loose...

Taking some time off from the craziness: skateboarding in Williamsburg.


Wherever you go in New York, as in the centre of Tel Aviv, there seems to be life on the streets. This is probably because both cities were planned to integrate ground floor commerce and first floor housing. No house is more than a hundred yards or so from a corner store, many of which stay open till late, and this helps create a feeling of safety and community.

This graffiti on the waterfront seemed to meld into the real objects in the foreground (or vice versa).

In the local park, the regular Sunday morning baseball game is in full swing.
  
Entering Sheep Meadow in Central Park. The great broad expanse of lawn ringed by Manhattan's skyscrapers is breathtaking. And on the lawn itself, frisbee players, kite flyers, yogists and people who simply want to lie on their backs and look at the sky for a while.  

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Comments

Lynn Cohen said…
Fun to take your trip with you...love the swing of the bat!

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