The Search for the Zozo

The most recent offering from Streetfilms shows many of the people I knew and know from New York’s Livable Streets Movement traveling the city in search of legendary Zozo, a creature that somewhat resembles a cross between Barney and Puff the Magic Dragon.  The Zozo apparently hates cars and abandoned New York in the mid-20th Century and only now, after years of the NYCDOT reclaiming open space, has the purple, fuzzy, kind-hearted beast re-appeared.

The film is over ten minutes long, making it the Titanic of Streetfilms; but it’s also fun and lighthearted and features the faces to go with some of the names you’ve probably gotten familiar with if you read this blog regularly: Clarence Eckerson, Aaron Naperstek and Tom Vanderbilt to name a few.   Make some time this weekend to sit down and watch it.  If you have kids, they’ll probably enjoy it more than you.

And when you’re done watching, drop me a line in the comments section because there’s something I’m wondering.  Does this film prove that I left New York just in time, or too soon?  Is everyone I know suffering from some form of mass-hysteria, or has the success in reclaiming so much public space just making them giddy?

Because hey, I want to be giddy too.