VOL · ISUMMER 2026
stay cool
HOW IT WORKSCOVERAGEFIELD NOTESSee the demo →
← FROM THE FIELD · VOL. I, N° 105PLATE B · ELEVATION · SUN ALT 56°AFTERNOON · EAST VILLAGE · TOMPKINS
PLATE · ELEVATION · ELM ROWCONTINUOUS CANOPY · PLANE + ELM · 12 PM
NEW YORK · FIELD NOTES · 5 MIN

The East Village, around Tompkins.

Tompkins Square Park has elms, sycamores, and the kind of canopy that doesn’t exist in the rest of downtown. Three walks that use the park as a hub and the avenues as spokes.

By

Tompkins Square Park is the East Village’s shade engine. Mature American elms and London planes cover roughly two-thirds of the park canopy and bleed onto the surrounding streets — Avenue A and Avenue B both pick up enough leaf cover from the park trees that the cross streets stay walkable into the afternoon.

These three radiate out from Tompkins. Avenue C and Alphabet City east of it lose canopy fast; Stay Cool routes you back into the tree zone after the destination.

The picks · 3.Graded JUN 12, 2026
  1. 01
    Astor Place to Tompkins Square Park

    East on Saint Marks. Awnings and tenement cornices keep you cool until the park.

    Shade
    78%
    Walk
    10 min
    Best at
    2 pm
  2. 02
    Tompkins to Veselka

    West on 9th Street under the elm canopy that extends two blocks past the park.

    Shade
    82%
    Walk
    6 min
    Best at
    1 pm
  3. 03
    First Avenue to Russ & Daughters

    South on the east sidewalk — tenement shadow flips to your side after 3 PM.

    Shade
    74%
    Walk
    14 min
    Best at
    3:30 pm

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About the author
Amar Braithwaite is the founder of Stay Cool. He builds shade-aware navigation tools and writes the Field Notes corpus on urban shade infrastructure. Read the why →

Walk in the shade.

Stay Cool computes a shadow-aware route for any city we map.

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