The City Pattern Project: 190th Street Subway

This past weekend, I took the opportunity to go to Fort Tryon Park, where the heather -- miraculously in bloom -- has transformed the landscape into a vibrant cloth of many colors and textures. (I'll be writing more about this later, so for now I offer the below shot to give you a lil taste.)
On the way home, I stopped to admire the subway house at 190th Street, just outside of the park entrance.
The wrought-iron grill work (in the archway, not on the ground) features the same motif that can be found in the my regular station at 163rd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, so I'm guessing it's all original to when the line was built in the year ____.
It's difficult to imagine the MTA -- or really any governmental entity -- building such a solid, aesthetically pleasing structure today, which seems strange if you consider the fact that, in certain respects (or at least until a few years ago), our country seems to have more money now than it ever had in its history. (Maybe I'm completely wrong about this!) I wonder if the current 'downturn' will lead to a new phase of civic development, or if we will always be looking back at the past with a sense of wonder and regret at our failure to improve on what was already created. When these gates were installed, did people have a sense of creating something that would last, or where they as constrained by the budget and the economy as we are today? Is it me, or does it seem like we have arrived at an unprecedented impasse in our ability to do much of anything that doesn't involve weapons or bestowing favors to the shadowy corporate entities whose approval seems necessary for the passage of any piece of legislation?  And if this has been a constant -- as certain pessimists like Schopenhauer would have us believe -- than how on earth did a city like New York ever build an entire subway system, when to build even a few miles now seems beyond our collective willpower?
I looked closely at the sign, which in its decaying beauty seemed like both a relic of the past and a symbol of what's still to come.

Comments

[Leannet]

I <3 your photos so much and also your writing Matthew Gallaway.

[Matthew Gallaway]

Thank you, Leannet! 3