The Sidewalks of New York

This morning I decided to take a walk. I started out going west from the Seminary on 20th street, across 10th and 11th Avenues to the Hudson River Park, which runs along the river all the way from something like 56th St. to Battery Park City at the southern tip of the island.

I didn't have a plan for how far I was going to walk, and I found myself being propelled south. Suddenly the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island stood on the horizon--I can scarcely believe I live only a few miles from Lady Liberty! I kept walking, avoiding rollerbladers and bikers, enjoying a beautiful day. I passed water parks, grassy areas for sunbathers, and many piers for sailboats, yachts, and kayaks. Moms with strollers mingled with young couples and shirtless joggers. Everyone seemed to be out enjoying the "last day of summer."

Mindful of the fact that I was getting farther from home, I simply couldn't turn back. I was so enjoying walking in Manhattan, not as a tourist, but as a New Yorker! Soon I found myself in Battery City (a really beautiful multi-use development along the river's edge) with Lady Liberty closer than ever.

FInally I decided to turn east and north to find my way home again. I found myself at the World Trade Center site -- still a large gaping hole, although now (unlike the last time I saw it, from a distance in December 2001) it is tidied up. The subway and rail lines that once were under the towers now lay under simple tin roofs, a testament to trying to a city trying to get back to normal even at the bottom of the very scar that marks that horrible day. It is strangely antiseptic -- simply looking at it, one cannot fathom the suffering of that day, nor the struggle to move forward for even the resilient folks known as New Yorkers.

I decided that I must move on, however, and so I began to make my way home. Wanting to travel light, I had not brought a map -- and lower New York, being the first part of Manhattan settled by the white man, does not follow the orderly grid of most of the island. I found Broadway, and decided to walk along it, knowing it would get me to familiar territory, although perhaps (indeed) on a slightly out-of-the-way route.

After passing St. Paul's chapel (which had an exhibit on 9/11 which I will revisit another day) I walked through the edge of Tribeca, the heart of Soho, and finally into numbered street territory. I was starting to feel like I knew where I was. At 14th Street I turned west, and wound my way back to the seminary.

And so, after a good 2 1/2 hours of walking (I don't know the distance exactly, as my pedometer was acting up) I returned to the peace and quiet of my apartment, feeling a bit more like I belong in this overwhelming, gritty, wonderful city.