The Play’s the Thing

Here’s a groovy photo of a groovy chick planting flowers in Union Square on the first Earth Day, 40 years ago. Funny to think she’s over 60 years old now.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation has been working hard to get landmark status for a wide swath of the blocks below Union Square, contending, correctly, that the locations were hotbeds of artistic innovation in post-war NYC. Abstract expression was born here, after all. To see their full proposal the Landmarks Commission, click here.

This remarkable photo looks west on 14th St. from Union Square in 1898. Isn’t it amazing how many buildings, including our own, still stand? The Lincoln statue is now inside the park.

The upscaling of 14th St. continues just three doors down, where Le Petit Belge has opened. Stop in for a Belgian waffle. $3.50 is a bit pricey for what’s essentially a zeppole, but they are pretty good, and who would have ever thought we’d have a takeout place on our block that features not one but six crystal chandeliers? New York magazine says: “When the waffles-to-go kiosk that Belgian expats Maor Livni and Greg Galel had planned for Logan Airport was nixed by a security-crazed fire marshal, the partners transplanted the business to Manhattan, where they’ve converted the former Tavalon tea shop into Le Petit Belge. A shrine of sorts to all things Belgian—or at least to Liège waffles, various imported chocolates, and paper cones full of mini-pancakes they call “poffys”—the shop takes a cannily ecumenical approach to New York snack food. That’s why it also serves frozen yogurt, provided by Berrywild, and rugalach made with Callebaut chocolate. And tea drinkers will still find the Tavalon line, in hot, frozen, and bubble varieties.”

The new and huge Union Square Park Playground looks like this.