On Demand
Wild Life on the 7 Line
Janette Kim, director of the Urban Landscape Lab at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and Glen Cummings, founder of the graphic design firm MTWTF, talk about Safari 7, the reading room and podcast tour of the “political ecology” along the 7 subway line, from Times Square to Flushing Meadows.
Visit the Safari 7 reading room at Studio X, 180 Varick Street, Ste. 1610, in lower Manhattan.
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"Safari 7", is a copyrighted word. It refers to game of Rugby played in Kenya with Seven aside.
Sorry, Janette, pigeons for the most part are like flying rats when it comes to disease.
This is a really interesting sounding project.
Consider following the G train from Queens to Brooklyn.
This sounds great! I'm gonna do this.
I used to live in Flushing and miss riding the 7 train--Queens really is the most diverse county in the entire nation. GO QUEENS!
Now that we have "Safari 7" for animals along the #7 line, how about "Six in the City", studying the people who ride the #6 line?
Brian suggested with mock alarm that the word "domesticated" not be used for pigeons. There is a word for the animal group that your guest is tried to articulate in saying these are animals that are used to living among humans: "feral".
Both some dogs and some pigeons are "feral", that is, domesticated animals left to fend for themselves. Just about all pigeons in the city are feral, having been brought here by immigrants as domesticated animals from their home countries. At times there have been packs of ferals dogs in parts of the city as well but not on the same scale as either pigeons in most cities or feral dogs in other cities and countries.
Mozo I have to correct your use of the tired and trite old Woody Allen wisecrack "flying rats".
Pigeons are not at all the same level of health risk as rats. Unlike rats, pigeons do not inhabit seewers nor enter our homes and they also do not bite. Unlike other birds they are vegetarian so they do not carry the insect-bourne germs that other birds do (West Nile, Bird Flu etc.).
Any animal living in urban streets (human, dog, cat or bird) will be a likely carrier of more germs and pests than normal. But pigeons are remarkably clean considering their circumstances due to their incredible immune systerms, their not eating insects or worms as do other birds, and their spontantious tendency to groom and to bathe.
This is an inspiring project! Can't wait to take the tour -
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