The best reason I was glad everyone left town and I was still there - me and whoever else stayed put could play in the streets freely. The cars vanished and give us double the space for touch football or whatever game we were playing. We even played a couple on York Avenue in between traffic light changes. Playing touch football on an avenue with that extra width made it feel like a real football field. Much better than the tight space touch games on the side streets were there were only five plays: button hooks, down and outs in between two parked cars, fake a button hook and go after the QB pumps, fake a down and out and go after QB pumps, and a fly.
Another good reason to not go away, it made the neighborhood spooky like a good Twilight Zone episode. Early in the morning, walking around, no cars, no people, just birds, you felt like the only kid on earth.
Here are photos from the 300 block on 85th Street, 500 block on 84th St Street, York Avenue between 83rd Street and 84th Street, and York looking south from 83rd Street towards the 59th Street Bridge. And one sunset.
Our "City Stories: Stoops to Nuts, show is this coming Tuesday, July 8th @ 6pm @ Cornelia Street Cafe is a doozy.
Our amazing artists: "The Duchess and the Fox, aka, Andrea Diaz and Joe McGinty (standout and founder of The Losers Lounge), Jennifer Barrett (Living Loud), Nicole Ferraro (NY Times) and Harry Rolnick (WSJ). We're bringing the musical side of storytelling to our show in a big way with Andrea, Joe and Jennifer merging with two of my favorite tellers in NYC, Nicole and Harry.
