This Week's Post About The Gates

Short of naming saffron the Big Apple's color, Mayor Bloomberg bestowed The Gates masterminds Christo and Jeanne-Claude with the Doris C. Freedman award for enriching the public environment. Interesting facts: Freedman was the founder of the Public Art Fund, and Mayor Ed Koch created the "Percent for Art" law, "which requires the city to spend 1 percent of its budget for eligible city-funded construction projects on art for city facilities." The AP said that Christo and Jeanne-Claude didn't say much, except Jeanne-Claude did add that two volunteers for the project fell in love and were going to get married. That's a nice coda for Gothamist's coverage of The Gates to end - however, if some of the frames suddenly turn up at a loft party in South Williamsburg, we're going to be all over it.

Some of The Gates are still up in the park, but most have been dismantled; and today, the Daily News has a photograph (left) of what The Gates look like when they are ground up. And speaking of The Gates detritus, Mayor Bloomberg announced that the positive economic impact of the project was around $254 million, but last weekend, the NY Times questioned the supposed $21 million cost, inspired, for sure, by greg.org's cost analysis of the project.