A somewhat curious news item caught my attention this week; A few New Yorkers are suing an events venue because the events venue is treating a nearby small public park as their own private space.
Just next to the Queensboro bridge, on the east side of Manhattan, roughly at the height of the start of Central Park, the small park truly is tiny, perhaps only just surpassing some 100 square meters in size. And the way it’s designed certainly makes it look like it isn’t public, even if it is. The conflict has even spilled over into the photography section for the park on Google Maps.

What caught my eye was what, in the photos documenting a press conference by the complainants, one of members of the group standing behind the speaker was wearing; a t-shirt with the text “Good Baklava No Drugs”, while holding a baking tray of, yes, baklava.

The man turns out to be The Baklava Guy, who shows up at Knicks games, with baklava, and to whom the NYT devoted an article. 
He imports the baklava from Turkey, and sells it at NYC prices. I suppose his presence at the press conference shows that you can’t let a good marketing opportunity go to waste.

The shocking part of the article, for me, was that the events venue which tried to claim the public space as their own, hosts weddings which cost, at minimum, 150.000 USD. Even at The Baklava Guy’s prices, that is a sizeable amount of baklava.

Besides my obvious interest in the event due to the occupation of public space by private entities, there's more to the story that's of interest; the venue, and park, are named after the architect Rafael Guastavino, somewhat famous for creating the Guastavino tile, allowing for ‘Guastavino vaulting’ a technique for constructing robust, self-supporting arches and vaults using interlocking terracotta tiles. The structure is used in a range of buildings and, often, underground constructions, many part of the public space, in New York, with the Museum of the City of New York calling spaces designed by Guastavino Palaces for the People, like a nod to the small palace that is the public park named after him, host to the baklava-fed conflict. 

Urban Archive lists over 100 existing structures by Guastavino in New York. One of them being the Whispering Gallery at Grand Central Terminal, indeed fit for an immersive sound walk.

Oddly, this was not the only unusual park-related news coming out of the US this week. 

NPR published an interview with Sammy Lett, an artist from Minneapolis, who put up signs around his city offering 10 dollars to tie his shoes. You read that right.

Settling on a park bench at an appointed time, members of the public started to approach Sammy… and a nearby gentleman who also happened to be sitting on a bench with untied laces.

Mild chaos ensued. 

I recommend you read the article, or listen to the 3 minute audio. It’s low key hilarious, and worthy of Situationist intervention.

Meanwhile, you might have noticed it’s already September. In a few days, Made of Walking Prosperpolder kicks off, and the end of this month is the deadline for submitting your work for consideration for the Sound Walk September Awards 2026. 

You better hurry!

Keep walking.

Do not miss this!

Follow us on social media