86'ed on 86th 3/ 3

Continued from previous message.

Park to the River. This growth spread north up to -- and across! --
the traditional 'event horizon' of 96th Street.
86th Street is the central spine of Yorkville. It is the main two-
way cross street with buses every 50 or so seconds, trucks, taxis,
cars, casino buses all day long. Only in the owl hours is traffic
slack enough for safe jaywalking.
86th St is heavily commercial and retail from Lexington Av to 1st
Av, less so beyond these limits. Most of the avenues are densely
commercial and retail, with residences on the upper floors. Because it
happens that NO OTHER cross street in all of Upper East Side is a
commercial-retail corridor, 86th St draws shoppers from many
kilometers away.
Transit is provided by only the IRT Lexington Av line at its 86th
St station since the els were removed in the 1940s and 1950s. A
replacement subway in 2nd Av was planned in the mid 1920s but never
built. Proposals came and went over the decades. The current scheme is
a two-track line with far-spaced stations. One is at 86th St and 2nd
Av. With the line so uncertain today, it is hard to consider it in
urban planning for Yorkville.
More 'big town' conveniences are coming to Yorkville, notably a
Marriott hotel, opened in spring 2006. It, on 90th St and 1st Av,
offers lodging for visitors at corporations and institutions in this
area. Before the hotel, visitors had to lodge in midtown, beyond
comfortable walking distance. For some reason, Marriott didn't name
this property for Yorkville, but almost everyone calls it 'Marriott
Yorkville' anyway.
Other amenities are expanded shuttle bus runs to laGuardia airport
and the Hamptons and home-office services. Yorkville got one Barnes &
Noble superstore, yet a second one will open on Lexington Av and 86th
St by 2009. Yorkville than goea to the top of the nation for having
the closest pair of B&N superstores.
The ethnic makeup is shifting away from Europe to Middle East and
Pacific Rim. In fact, at the extreme north end of Yorkville, right on
the event horizon, is the new Islamic Center, the largest mosque in
America. Its cockeyed alignment on the block aims it toward the qibla
of Mecca.
Among the seemingly countless institutions in Yorkville are
colleges, charities, museums, hospitals. They employ myriads of
commuters from all over the City. This 'reverse commute' contributes
to the load carried by the IRT Lexington Av by moving huge numbers of
people at all hours in both directions. The line moves 1.6 million
riders per weekday, making it the busiest single transit line on
earth.

The future
--------
Yorkville is a town under enormous pressure from the evolving
social and economic climate around it. The new people moving in come
to a crowded beehive of riotously expensive housing. The older
inhabitants struggle with dwindling conveniences of a simple life. The
subway overflows with ever more riders. Sidewalks are more crowded
with foot jams at the corners. Construction blocks off sidewalks,
generates dust and noise, jams streets with machines.
At the same time, Yorkville still retains a cohaesive unity,
setting it apart from its nabes to the north and south. As a town
equal to most mid American towns, it can be a role model for dealing
with rapid growth, social and economic stress, transit, traffic and
congestion, lifestyle management, and luminous graffiti.

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