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I took advantage of the nice warm weather yesterday afternoon/evening to run some errands. I went via PATH train to Christopher Street to pick up some, ahem, adult supplies, and then on the way back stopped at Pavonia/Newport to go to Home Depot to pick up some light bulbs (long overdue).

Now, yes, it was Halloween. Yes, it was a Friday. Yes, it was nice and warm. But what I saw was swarms of people on their way to the Halloween Parade in the Village, and a mall swarming with people who appeared to be shopping (they were going in and out of the shops, not just wandering through the mall, like I was). Home Depot wasn’t so busy, but it rarely is.

On another note, pace Matthew Yglesias, somebody really wasn’t planning very well when they designed the area around the mall. Yes, it’s right next to the Holland Tunnel, which is an obvious epicenter of car culture, but the walk from the light rail station (or from the PATH station) to Home Depot is fraught with perils, especially crossing the wide street that is the entrance to the tool booths for the tunnel. And then the Home Depot itself! Ack! Designed entirely for drive-up customers, with no consideration whatsoever for pedestrians.

Worse still was a place on the sidewalk I encountered on the way back. The sign that had the button attached for requesting the walk light was placed directly across the sidewalk, blocking it, so that if you wanted to walk past the sign (90 degrees from the direction you’d be crossing the street), you had to step INTO THE STREET!