Weekend Open Thread:
Tricycle

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Last Week at Portico: Something of a Noël Coward entry, this, as you will see. ¶ Our Memorial Day weekend was bracketed by two evenings on Broadway, in theatres right round the corner from one another. Blithe Spirit was a must-see, because of its cast, which included Angela Lansbury, Rupert Everett, Deborah Rush, and an actress whom I’ve been trying to see for years, Jayne Atkinson (Christine Ebersole is great, too). God of Carnage was also a must-see because of its cast, but the playwright’s name was certainly a draw. The cast was made up of Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini, and Marcia Gay Harden. The accidental Tony Soprano jokes were a squirt of lemon juice on a great dish. Has there ever been anything like the profusion of great actors on Broadway?

¶ This week’s movie is Easy Virtue, an interesting and not heavyhanded adaptation of a play that Coward wrote in his twenties. In the Twenties. You have to see it, because Kristin Scott Thomas just about sings. ¶ And, of course, the Book Review review.

One Response to “Weekend Open Thread:
Tricycle”

  1. Quatorze says:

    “Easy Virtue” a bon-bon with nutritional value.

    If I were czar of New York, I would have large scale deliveries made at night, say 2-5 AM, so all larger truck traffic would be gone during the day. Obviously, specialty moves would be able to proceed in daytime, subject to a pass obtainable for a fee. Tractor trailers however should be banned altogether; let’s use cross country trains, smaller panel trucks and light rail again and save the wear and tear on our city’s infrastructure, air quality and citizens nerves.

    A real czar would dig up the avenues and major cross streets, installing light rail delivery to all major buildings, including apartments, and obviating the need for trucks altogether. A delineated central business district would help also contain the major delivery zone, saving energy and time and us all from the pell-mell sprawl and proliferation of business in residential areas. A solid delineation would also preserve neighborhood characteristics, and the value of people’s homes and apartments.

    The installation of these delivery lines would entail a re-jiggering of utility lines, but these are long overdue for replacement anyway, as are the road surfaces, and could be run in the light rail tunnels for ease of maintenance. Pneumatic mail chutes might be revisited too, reducing the need for so many mail trucks. If Haussman could do it for Paris, we should be able to do so as well. Subways would need to be circumnavigated, but their tunnels might provide space for rerouted utilities. A real boon would be to install the light rail delivery lines and a passenger car tunnel as well below grade, skinning the whole over with parks and promenades and single traffic lanes, in the manner of Park Avenue in its earliest days, before traffic robbed the parks and promenades of their initial, wider space. Bringing back trolley cars would help immensely as part of this wider traffic reduction/rerouting/re-timing. It worked well for decades and was only scrapped in the Eisenhower era of private cars at any price; New York was not designed for cars, let’s face it and make public transport a pleasure again. Private autos really should only be in the city for those with special needs or as transport out of town, for long trips. By limiting effective access through street reduction, we would effectively prevent people from driving in without their being able to complain about their civil right to drive anywhere they please being violated, if rail is easier, people would take it over the new inconvenience of private cars.

    Small trucks as pictured could service the tighter streets and byways during the day, making local deliveries.

    Finally, if I REALLy was the czar, I would demolish the Pan Am (I do not care what they say, it is NOT the Met Life) Building to restore the vista down Park Avenue. Other eyesores would soon follow, though other, underutilized areas could be slated for new construction with large iconic buildings. Buildings with tall arcades would be especially welcome. Vote for me!