HALLIE EPHRON: Every so often something changes for the better.
Used to be that when you took the train from Boston to New York City, you ended up in Penn Station. Crowded dark and depressing, it was in the bowels of Madison Square Garden.The bathrooms were gross and often out of order. Its one redeeming feature was a truly superb deli where you could get authentic tasting corned beef on the right kind of mustard on the right kind of rye bread with potato salad that was outstanding. I wish I knew the name of that place.Now your train ride starts and ends in a building across the street from Madison Square Garden, Moynihan Train Hall. It is spectacular, vast, light and airy, plenty of seating while you wait, and now that the food court has opened it’s pretty near perfect. Though I miss that deli.
Originally the city’s main post office, the building was known as the James A. Farley Building. It was among the first protected as a landmark under preservation laws created in wake of the destruction of its sister structure, the original Penn Station.
In your neck of the woods, what’s something in the landscape that’s changed… for the better?
DEBORAH CROMBIE: On a very, very micro level, our city is putting in accessible sidewalks on both sides of the two one-way main thoroughfares that run from the freeway to the town square, one of which we live on (although we face the cross street.)
This is great for so many reasons; making the neighborhood more walkable, a huge improvement in aesthetics, and for us, people no longer walking through our yard because they couldn't be bothered to cross the street to the partial sidewalk on the other side.
Downside, they're tearing out half of one of our big berms, and have broken our irrigation system. But c'est la vie, I'm sure it will all be sorted in the end.
RHYS BOWEN: Something has been changing in both places where I live. A once vibrant shopping mall has been torn down and is being replaced by multi-functional buildings–apartments or condos above retail, restaurants and with walking paths, bike paths, green areas. More like original towns used to be and everything walkable and close to public transport.
The other improvement in Marin County is the SMART rail system that links Sonoma County with the ferry to San Francisco. I’m afraid it’s not used as much as it should be but perhaps it will catch on eventually. I have yet to ride it even though it's free to over 65s.
JENN McKINLAY: When I first moved to Phoenix downtown was a wasteland. No one went down there to hang out. Other than a few bars that served patrons before and after sporting events, there wasn’t much to do.
Then someone started First Fridays, which is essentially an art walk that has bloomed into so much more. Slowly, things began to change and now downtown is quite the hotspot. My favorite area being the Roosevelt district where there’s loads of restaurants, art galleries, and live music venues.
Sometimes change is wonderful.
LUCY BURDETTE: Things are always changing in Key West and I often think these changes are a mistake. I am often wrong. For example, the city built a giant amphitheater a few years ago on the waterfront. Bah humbug, we said. A waste of money, they won't use it! But they do use it, all the time, for many different kinds of events.
Ditto with the brand new Truman Waterfront Park. John and I poo-pooed it, but it turned out to be lovely and heavily used.
So I guess the lesson here is don't ask me!
Now, as soon as the season begins, restaurants take over the sidewalks and allow diners to eat outside. They have tried to outdo each other with gorgeous settings, trellises festooned with flowers, and flowering trees, and heaters and canopies and umbrellas, and all kinds of things to make it festive.
In an adjacent town, they’ve closed off the main street which is lined by restaurants, and now it is a pedestrian area. It’s like a big festival every weekend, with everyone eating outside and strolling.
HALLIE: I'm sensing a theme here: public walkable spaces. So what about your neighborhood, what's changed for the good? And are you a converted fan or did you anticipate how good it would be?