Lunchtime performance

Back to Broadway:  
Before heading further north, let's stay on the square in front of The Lincoln Center. In the weekends a small fruit and veg market is here and this summer each Wednesday live lunch concerts also took place. I love small open squares like this where happenings take place. Forty spectators or so can be on this small island squeezed in between two major roads: Broadway & Columbus Avenue with two small streets on each side. Great music mixed with hooting horns and the sirens of fire engines! 

These events are normally sponsored by a few of the shops in the neighborhood so the day I was there free juice and chocolate cakes were handed out for free. It is at such occasion you see the multitude aspects of New York City. You mainly see people relaxing eating their sandwiches and enjoying music during their lunch break. A few tourists also hang around enjoying the good and free entertainment. Then there is the more unfortunate crowd, such as poor students, poor old people and destitute homeless. However much I love this city, I also get sad (and upset actually), that this city - in one of the richest countries in the world - have these people lingering everywhere to obtain a free small snack for the afternoon. I observed several old fragile people lingering around the serving table about half an hour or more before anything was served, more obstructing the work of the servants from the restaurant rather than helping them - these people were lining up, I guess, out of desperation. Crazy how in no time a very long line formed for just a small slice of cake! But then again, it's not the only place I have seen New Yorkers lining up - they are ready to stand in line for hours for a cupcake or a salat - as long it's trendy it's worth it. But on that concert day, it was not like that - it looked more out of desperation.  Europe is being influenced a lot by American culture, but I do wish that America would be a bit more influenced by the European culture of basic social standards for also the very poorest.