No wonder they call it the greatest city in the world. New York has just given more people a chance to sit.

A newly opened Times Square pedestrian plaza has become a sensation with the addition of 376 blue-, pink- and green-pastel folding chairs.

It’s being treated as sheer genius, which it is. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has turned up his nose at its tackiness, but come on. Tacky is America.

Why did it take until the 21st century for someone to think of posterity? By that, I mean the posture that deploys the posterior.

Our own community has taken almost a century and a half to drag its tail to the same smart conclusion: People want to sit.

In school, my kids had a little rhyme which was aimed at maintaining kindergarten order: This is my head. This is my face. And this is my sit-upon place.

Those lyrics have a place in my heart, and in my hindquarters.

How many times through the years have I thought that my sit-upon place was not being served in this city? Countless.

There were the local parks years ago where the ground was where you sat when taking a child to the playground.

There were the trips to the big-box toy store where the kid debated until closing whether to claim a shrink-wrapped ally of Megatron or a teammate of Optimus Prime. Where for a parent to sit?

Why don’t more retailers get the message from the book stores with comfy chairs and coffee? Sitting is good for business.

I’ve written about this before relative to parks. The city has come around nicely in recent years, I must say.

Parks director Rusty Black cited a survey in Lubbock that identified benches as the No. 1 park-user need.

When he came to Waco in the mid-’90s, Black acknowledged that the city “had some catching up to do.”

That Waco has been doing. It is adding benches at walking trails voters authorized with the 2007 bond issue. The city is adding benches at the look-outs at Cameron Park now getting makeovers. It will add benches when the city improves its skate park, with a walking path around it.

Black also acknowledged a key ingredient to consider: Benches need shade.

That’s a very pertinent consideration. A bench that sits out in the glare of 100-degree sun is no treat for one’s sit-upon-place.

Cities do more and more these days to facilitate walking, riding, skating, swinging and climbing. Bravo to all. What they neglect too often is the act of sitting.

I can think of few better places than Times Square to plop down the old buns and drink it all in. Observers are right to hail the ingenuity of it all: of the remarkable invention called the chair.

John Young’s column appears Thursday and Sunday. E-mail: jyoung@wacotrib.com.