Street Fair Part II

After the usual morning routine, I headed out to meet a friend for bunch, and when passing by Lexington Avenue I came across another street fair. As I discussed in excruciating detail in a previous post, I have seen this phenomenon previously, but after checking into the official street fair schedule it appeared that this wasn't going to happen again on Lexington for the rest of the summer. After checking into it this time when I returned home, I could find no reason why there was a repeat showing today. Apparently this was just some future echo of last weekend's fair, brought on by a collective desire to preserve the spirit of all the fun and merriment that all enjoyed.

While strolling through I happened to pass by a rug merchant, and it crossed my mind that being in the process of moving into a yet-to-be-furnished apartment, we were going to be in need of a number of rugs, and this might be a good opportunity to find a solution. I was in somewhat of a hurry so I didn't stop today, but I figure at this point that they do this on Lexington pretty much every weekend, so maybe I will catch up the rug peddler next week. I'm sure I could arrange for some kind of package deal to cover every room in our apartment, although I'm not sure my negotiating skills are given that the rug trade and those that practice it practically invented and have practiced haggling for centuries.

When discussing this with a friend a bit later he mentioned that in many buildings in Manhattan there are explicit rules and requirements for covering a certain percentage of the floors with rugs (80% in his case). As I am still becoming acclimated to the customs and standards of living here, I am continuously amazed by what people have to go through to live in a Manhattan apartment. I don't think I have heard of any requirements like this at our building, but then again there was a large covenant I vaguely recall us having to acknowledge at some point in the purchase process. It's not that I object to the rules; I can understand the noise control angle, and I would be in favor anyway in the interest of protecting the finish on the wood floors. But even reasonable measures can seem onerous when they make the jump from recommended to mandatory.