Reading Response
February 14, 2018, by Bryce
Sante’s Streets opens in discussing quite how the streets of New York have changed over time. The streets started as narrow cobblestone streets with large pedestrian sidewalks. It’s interesting to note that cobblestones were somewhat of a nuisance during their time, with Edgar Allen Poe complaining that “a more ingenious contrivance for driving men mad through sheer noise, was undoubtedly never invented,” (Sante, 47). In modern times, cobblestone streets are often seen as idyllic, reflecting back to a simpler time, and often romanticized as a happier time. The cobblestone streets still preserved in the West Village, or even Greene Street on NYU’s campus, are seen as beautiful and nostalgia producing. But, from the rest of Sante’s chapter on the New York streets, we see that the 19th century streets were anything but these positive connotations modern day people hold to cobblestone streets.
The sreets of New York at this time were a chaotic mess. Traffic even back then was infuriating and often came to a dead halt. During these times, it was the police’s role to untangle the mess. Traffic regulation, in the forms of lights and signs that we have today, was not in effect during this time. It wasn’t until 1902 that the idea of alternating cross traffic was established at major intersections. It’s surprising that the famous large rotary at Columbus Circle was created in 1905.
The most interesting part of the chapter on the Streets of New York though, was the introduction of Colonel George E. Waring in 1895. Waring came to a city that had been overrun by filth, literally. There were a multitude of dead horses on the street as well as all of the excretions of said horses. Waring was the man who cleaned up the streets, the Giuliani of his time one might say. He established the Street Cleaning Department, who were “a disciplined corps with an operetta-military look involving white uniforms, pith helmets, and wheeled carts.” (Sante, 48) He also figured out a way to clear the city of snow long before the advent of snow plows.
This portion of the chapter deals with issues of the late 1800s, but yet it also is reflective of issues happening in present day New York. Sante describes the death of horses on the street and their inhumane treatment, something that led to the formation of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Horse Aid Society. Although taking place more Uptown than the Downstreet area Sante is discussing, this mistreatment of horses can still be seen in New York. There have been multiple protests and petitions circulated about the horse-carriage rides in Central Park. There are also consistently issues pertaining to over-population of the city, leading to an abundance of cars as well as trash in New York. The halting traffic having to be corrected quite literally by the police still happens today during rush hour.
Sante later goes onto to discuss the technology and transportation of the streets as well as the different demographics that make up the streets of New York, but this early section that discusses quite literally what is happening on the streets is fascinating. There is so much that parallels what we see today, maybe not to the extent of rotting horse corpses on the street, but the filth, congestion and even inhumanity is all still around.