New York City is one of the world's great walking cities. I learned, from Jen of the Walking Berkeley blog, that walking is one of the best ways to get to know a place. Other influences include my natural inclination to walk, "Looking At Cities" by Allan Jacobs, "Wanderlust" by Rebecca Solnit, and the concept of the flaneur . On Saturday past, I walked a transect (h/t to Grady Clay ) from Bleecker Street to East 15 Street. Why these particular points? Bleecker was the scene of a street fair between Broadway and 6th Avenue and Union Square is the site of a Saturday Greenmarket. The middle point was Washington Square Park, famous for its fountain and as a yard for NYU students. Bleecker's street fair hosted gyro vendors, New York souvenir sellers, "3 for $10 pashminas" (in this heat?), fresh fruit juice and bonsai stalls (I was tempted by the latter). The scene was different in Washington Square. There were vendors, but only handful, selling r