Imagine you’re a New York City building official, and the mayor’s office has decided to let an artist build a living room six stories up in the air and wrap it around a historic statue of Christopher Columbus in the middle of one of Manhattan’s busiest intersections.

Oh, and the plan is to have 100,000 people climb up stairs to view it.

You might have a few safety concerns and envision a few traffic headaches. And you’d note, of course, that somebody will have to worry about insurance and handicap accessibility.

But the mayor is, as you know, a big champion of the arts and, by reputation, no great fan of the automobile.