Activity 1 - Being a Flaneur/Patricia Fraser

I chose to observe the South Street Seaport Mall on the lower east side of Manhattan. I stayed for little over an hour during the mid afternoon. I situated myself in what I felt was a central location to observe all the action around me – the middle landing area that overlooks the first floor shops, with a view of all the stores on the second floor and a partial view of the food court above. As I looked around, I saw only a sprinkling of people, mostly nannies and young moms pushing strollers or encouraging the one year old with walking on newly discovered legs. Some were tourists, walking in small groups with backpacks and cameras hanging off them. Later on in the hour, local school kids dropped by to walk around, try a game or two in GameStop or hang out in the massage chairs to talk and cuddle up. Some went to sleep in the chairs. But mostly I saw shopkeepers, some doing what I was doing, being a flaneur, watching everyone else go by. Some of the store owners/workers stepped outside their stores and away from their kiosks to interact with other store owners. They traded newspapers, looked at each others’ merchandise or observed their surrounding together.

As I looked around I kept thinking about what Jane Jacobs wrote about cities, about how they are most effective when shops and walkways are close together, allow for multiple uses at different times of day by different people, and encourages a natural interaction between the people and their environment. I felt like the mall was situated in an area that did not lend itself to being easily accessed by lots of people year round. I felt that site was mostly a tourist location for most of the year, and only at specific times, mainly weekend nights and the summer, was the area utilized by the most people. When I was there, the mall was quiet and almost empty. The first and only time I’ve ever visited was a summer night last year and there were many people in the food courts and restaurants, but all of the retail stores were closed. Even then I would say that they area was lacking in diversity of use because, again, it was mainly visited by tourists, it’s not open and available 24/7 and it’s across a lane of the FDR.