Southbank Centre, London

So, I’m just about done with a three-week stay in London, and I’ve barely ventured north of the Thames.  Full disclosure: I’m here to perform at the Southbank Centre and am staying in a hotel near Waterloo.  But still, it appears that London’s South Bank is the place to be these days.  The Southbank Centre itself boasts the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Festival Halls, the Hayward Gallery, and at least ten mostly affordable restaurants.  On any given evening there are hundreds of people gathered at the terrace bar outside Festival Hall, in a sort of unofficial happy hour for the masses.  Many seem not to be there in connection to any cultural event, but merely to meet friends and enjoy the view.  If you face the river and turn left, you’ll hit the tourist favorite London Eye; turning right will take you to the British Film Institute and the National Theatre, all without crossing a single street.  Just a bit further is the Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe, but you never have to leave the river to get there, and you’ll also encounter many more places to eat, drink, and shop along the way.

The London Eye, on the river Thames

This American lad can’t stop wondering why we don’t have a place like this in New York City.  Lincoln Center, even with its many recent improvements, still feels somewhat isolated.  And when was the last time you saw hundreds of people gathered outside by the fountain, drinks in hand?  Oh right, that privilege is restricted to ticket holders – never mind…  Furthermore, who can really afford to eat at Lincoln Center area restaurants?  Certainly not the throngs of young people I’ve been seeing outside Festival Hall.

OK, time out:  I know what you’re thinking.  There is all sorts of government funding here that we don’t have back in the States.  I will not even try to argue this point, because it is absolutely and sadly true.  But we seem to have it backwards in New York – we try to lure people to extremely expensive cultural events and then hope that they’ll patronize the similarly expensive restaurants and shops in the vicinity.  Why not bring the cultural attractions to places people already want to (and can afford to) be?

Time out #2: The second batch of naysayers will undoubtedly argue that NYC just wasn’t built this way – there is simply no room to spread out, and the city doesn’t have a central riverfront like Paris or London.  Well I think Brooklyn and Queens residents would beg to differ…and everyone knows they’re the ones with the best views of the city!

I do think we’re making slow progress.  DUMBO and Fort Greene are already great cultural destinations, as is Long Island City.  And the ongoing restoration of Governor’s Island looks very promising, not to mention the increasing popularity of our water taxi system.  Maybe there’s someone out there willing to take a giant risk and dream up a new cultural mecca for NYC.  My guess is they’d be substantially rewarded, both in profits and by history.  Are you listening, Mayor Bloomberg???

As luck would have it we are a mere 15 mins. walk from the new Target Field: home of the Minnesota Twins. This is their inaugural season in their state of the art stadium and I managed to get 2 tix for the opening week of home games. My husband came up from Chicago (he is a Cubs fan) and we enjoyed a great day at the Ballpark. I must say the new Field is a delight but what impressed me the most was how close the field and thus the action is and every seat faces towards the game so they have done an excellent job. It was a glorious cloudless day so we experienced a piece of true Americana.

We also drove the wonderful Grand Scenic Byway and finished off our day at the famous sculpture Garden where my husband wanted to see the famous Claes Oldenburg piece. Living in Chicago which is a great Architectural and Sculptural city, we are admirers of Oldenburgs Baseball Bat sculpture which is not far from the Lyric Opera of Chicago and now have seen another of his famous works in situ.

I will be sorry to go home after this trip as even native Minnesotans are astonished at how sublime the weather has been. I love to walk and have probably racked up about 30 miles while I’ve been here. I think the weather Gods were trying to make a point against the naysayers of the new Target Field who think that building an open fielded Baseball Park was an exercise in folly!!! C’est la vie.