Seating

I'm not the first person to notice these new metal benches appearing on sidewalks all over the city. Many of them are adjacent to bus-stops. Without protection from the elements, sitting on one seems like a bleak business. Take this bench on Fifth just past Prospect Avenue. Who'd want to perch close to traffic, with the roar of expressway traffic thundering beneath you, and the winds whistling along the canyon? The views are good up here, I'm the first to admit, but not so hot if you're sitting down. Instead you'd be looking enviously at the riders on the other side who have a shelter. The seats appear to come in two versions, with (deluxe) & without (standard) backs, and while neither of them look comfortable, one wonders why some sites get the better model. Visitors to the cemetery, a few blocks south, merit the the deluxe bench, set back from the road & and apparently connected to graver (sorry) matters than bus travel. It seems a bit unfair. The poor sods waiting for the 63 at Prospect (a Beckett-like destiny if ever there was one) must settle for standard, and stop being so damn spineless.