He did it while taking a stand against gentrification, and against the theme-parking of history, by insisting that real people must continue to live, work, study and retire amid the historic plazas, palaces, museums and boutique hotels.

The emergence of ‘malled' shopping districts with private security guards, the huge expansion of gated communities, the spread of CCTV surveillance on the streets, and the general theme-parking and militarization of urban public space have all placed limits on civic mobility…, and hence civic freedom.

New York City thrives on change, but sometimes the changes are hard to swallow. The theme-parking of 57th Street is a case in point. Just now, this quintessentially Manhattan thoroughfare looks to be on the verge of seceding from New York and linking up with Anaheim, Calif., and Orlando, Fla., in a confederacy of kitsch.