Draw the Line

There was a great deal of brouhaha this week over what most are calling a prank on Fifth Avenue, in the august shadow of the Flatiron building. In a nutshell, someone painted a line down the sidewalk that divided up the pavement between "Tourists" and "New Yorkers." For anyone who's ever tried to navigate Fifth Avenue during business hours on an even marginally nice day, this will make perfect sense, as the sidewalks are clogged up with herds of ambling, corpulent tourists. Personally speaking,  I'd have suggested painting the line further to the north between, say, 57th street and 34th street. It's nuts up there. In any event, many folks got up in arms about it (here's Gawker's take on it). I thought it was pretty funny, but then -- I can't stand tourists (this opinion, according to our mayor, makes me "sick"). In any case, the evidence of the stunt was all but a memory by Thursday afternoon, as the markings had all been tidily scrubbed away.