Politics
‘I’ve Been to All the Popular Tourist Sites at Least Once’
Taking pictures of standpipes, a dancer on the subway in Brooklyn and more reader tales of New York City in this week’s Metropolitan Diary.
Standpipes Deliver
Dear Diary:
I have been to New York City to visit family about 40 times over the past 20 years.
I’ve been to all the popular tourist sites at least once and am now content to walk for miles, spending the day crossing the bridges from Brooklyn to Manhattan while the adults work and the children are at school.
On some visits, I decide on a theme for photos to take as I walk. One year it was doors; another it was buildings I found intriguing.
My favorite subject by far has been standpipes, those systems that supply water to a building in case of fire. Without them, firefighters would have to lug their heavy hoses up flights of stairs manually.
Most people pass these ubiquitous stalwarts without knowing what they are called or what they are used for.
Once, about 15 years ago, when I was not yet a grandmother, I was crouching down in front of a standpipe to get a better angle for my photo.
A young man walking by saw what I was doing.
“That ain’t art, grandma,” he said.
I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
— Anna M. Kealoha
