When I first started working in lower Manhattan one of my regular haunts was Chase Manhattan Plaza. The space was dominated by Jean Dubuffet’s
Group of Four Trees, which is still one of my favorite pieces of public art. The plaza itself was large, open and shaded, and you could sit there and feel a little relieved from the canyon-like vertical oppression which contributes to the claustrophobia of the Financial District. It is a real feeling-- "
Bartleby, the Scrivener" might be spotted in any of the windows around Wall Street at any moment.
Come to find out that J.P. Morgan Chase has fenced it off, the sons of bitches.
The reasons for closing access sound pretextual to me, and it is remarkable that in the 21st Century bankers can be bigger pricks than they were in the original Gilded Age.
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