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Super Bowl Boulevard Is Killing The Orchids, Local Business, NYC's Soul
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 31, 2014
Modified Jan 31, 2014
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 31, 2014
Modified Jan 31, 2014
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Super Bowl Boulevard—sorry, Super Bowl Boulevard Engineered by GMC—is not just an obscenely commercialized meathead fantasia that's clogging our streets with slow-moving sports tourists/meticulously targeted consumers. It's also a Harbinger of Death. Yes, just ask poor Cliff Jacobs, who manages Peters Flowers and Gifts on Broadway and 38th. From a stirring NY Times article confirming everything wrong with Super Bowl Boulevard Engineered by GMC:
The orchids are dying, and Cliff Jacobs blames the Super Bowl. No, the kickoff is not until Sunday. What is killing the orchids, he said, is Super Bowl Boulevard, the urban theme park celebrating the big game that was constructed on 14 blocks of Broadway that were closed to traffic on Monday.
Whenever the door opens in the flower shop he runs, at 1407 Broadway, at West 38th Street, cold air blasts in. This week, the door has been opened not by people who want bouquets, but by people who want warmth after standing a little too long on Super Bowl Boulevard... “It’s a disaster,” Mr. Jacobs said on Wednesday.
According to the Times, some business owners lament that the Boulevard of Branding has not been the economic boon they anticipated. One nearby sports bar owner asks, "Where are the people? We are a sports bar, and the Super Bowl has brought no additional business." Sorry, they're waiting on line to pay $5 to go down a slide.
And of course the traffic is even more of a nightmare, whether you try to machete your way through the streets on foot or pin your sad, futile hopes on a cab. Worst of all, however, are the aesthetics. Yesterday we utilized hundreds of words in a struggle to convey how vulgar and soul crushing the whole steroidal marketing stunt turned out to be. Area man Shane Furey nails it in 15: "It looks like a county fair that got vomited on by a lot of advertising."
Mr. Furey, we're buying you a cup of organic Bancha tea at Candle Cafe after Sunday night's World Politics talk at the 92nd Street Y.
Tagged
hyperbole
panem
super bowl
super bowl blvd
super bowl boulevard
trolling
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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