One Short Block

One of the most interesting and eclectic group of retailers in New York city likes on Bleecker Street between 6th and 7th Avenue. On this one short block, you will find a surprising number of legendary businesses, several of which I have previously written about. Here is a brief highlights walking tour:
At the corner of 6th Avenue, Carmine Street and Bleecker Streets, you have Father Demo Square, Trattoria Spaghetto and the beautiful Our Lady of Pompei church. Starting on the North Side of Bleecker, we have the vinyl (& CD) music emporium - Bleecker Street Records, a kind of bookend to Bleecker Bob's just across 6th Avenue. Then we have Rocco's Pastry, L'Occitanea Provence and Oliviers &Co - an olive oil store.
At 259 Bleecker lies the former home of Zito's bakery - legendary local business for 80 years (1924-2004) that many say fell victim to the anti-carbs movement (along with rising rents). At 269, the Neighborhood Church and at 273 Bleecker Street we have Matt Umanov Guitars, opened in 1965 and known worldwide with world class clientele. I personally met Richie Havens there (who opened the 1969 Woodstock Festival). Finishing the block on the north side is Ottomanelli's Butcher Shop (specializing in wild game).
Crossing over to the South Side at 7th Avenue, there is Caliente Cab Co - subject of a controversial incident - see here.
The south side of Bleecker has number of fish and seafood establishments. Appropriately named, Fish is an excellent restaurant which also retails fish. I have eaten there twice and highly recommend it. At 278 Bleecker we have John's, one of the most legendary pizza places in the city. You won't miss this place with its perennial lines. It was founded in 1929 by John Sasso and some say this thin crust, coal-fired brick oven pizza it is the best in the city (or even the world). Others find it over rated.
At 272 there is Cones (an artisanal ice creamery), at 270 the Risotteria restaurant, a specialist in Risotto. Aphrodisia is an amazing shop - a survivor since 1967 with a huge selection of herbs, spices and oils. Next is Trattoria Pesce & Pasta followed by two more vintage operations: Faicco's Sausage Shop--since 1927 and Murray's Cheese Shop since 1940 - see my posting here.
Rounding out the block is Amy's Bread and The Lobster Place, seen in today's photo. The Lobster Place at 252 Bleecker, was started in 1974 by Roderick and Joan MacGregor, who were inspired to bring the Downeast (Maine) seafood experience to Manhattan. Now retired to Maine, the business has been taken over by their son Ian. I'm looking forward to the whole smoked trout I purchased there on my last visit.
Don't be dissuaded by any naysayers who allege the destruction of Bleecker Street through gentrification. Nearly all the stores on this block are still single location, mom-and-pop type operations. Of course there have been several newer upscale retailers who have moved to the block. But the impact is nothing like the malling of many areas in the city like Broadway in SoHo. You would be hard pressed to find such a varied collection of shops like this (including many legacy businesses) in one short block anywhere in the world ...

Related Postings: Murray's Cheese, Matt Umanov, Time Misspent, Father Demo Square, Our Lady of Pompei, Donato, Bleecker Bob's, Bleecker Street, Le Figaro Cafe.

Little Stuff

Do not think that all of New York City is paved with gold. There are plenty of ordinary people whose income is modest and many minimum wage earners. Seeing this shelf of Spam in Manhattan reminds me of a private joke between a friend and I whose punchline we never tired of using whenever we could.
When I was much younger, another friend and I were fascinated with fireworks, particularly bottle rockets. Although we did occasionally buy firecrackers, we never were interested in the heavy noise found with M-80s or Cherry Bombs. As foolish as we were, we had a sense of their much more dangerous nature. Also, we did not enjoy extraordinary explosive noise. We were interested in rocketry.
At the time, at New Year's Eve or Chinese New Year, fireworks were easily purchased in the city. Vendors were all over the streets in neighborhoods like the East Village and Chinatown, selling their wares out of garbage cans, auto trunks, bags etc. The city was much less aggressive about enforcement.
One night searching for some rockets, all three of us came across a street vendor barking a list of his wares, of course featuring his big stuff. When I asked if he had bottle rockets, he seemed rather taken aback and with enormous pride and smug confidence, responded "hey, we got the little stuff too." Apparently we were to know he was a full service retailer. So, that's the punchline. It loses much in translation because one of the keys here is the delivery - a combination of the very smug, macho posturing with a Brooklyn/Queens accent.
Thereafter, anytime a conversation provided opportunity to reaffirm the merits of the diminutive and share some insider humor, we added "we got the little stuff too" along with our best interpretation of that fireworks vendor.
This shelf of Spam at a local supermarket tells us that people buy and use the product - this is not an Andy Warhol art piece. We still have large numbers of homeless. Fast food restaurants and deep discount retailers dot the city. These are not just the haunts of price conscious millionaires, flaunting frugality and good shopping skills, but the places where many of lessor means shop. New York City requires the same services as anywhere else and someone has to work those jobs - clerks, gas station attendants, waiters etc. These positions do not pay the wages of investment bankers or attorneys. Twenty three percent of New Yorkers live below the poverty line.
So to those that think the city is only comprised of exclusive high-end retailers, fashion boutiques, costly apartments, expensive restaurants and gourmet foods, I would like to remind you - we got the little stuff too :)

Note: One night we witnessed a woman whose hand covered a bleeding eye from being hit by a stray bottle rocket in Chinatown. This convinced us that even bottle rockets had inherent dangers and fireworks are best kept out of the hands of recreational users. 

That Color

Before this site was actually launched in March, 2006, I had already decided to feature Vesuvio Bakery as my very first posting - see here. There were a number of reasons - this place was so absolutely iconic - it had history, charm and was family owned by a member of the Italian community surrounding it. And a good product. In short, I could think of nothing that could better represent an aspect of the city that New Yorker's love. It's image graced many brochures along with my business card for this website. Today it becomes the first establishment I feature twice - an obituary of sorts - Vesuvio closed in February, 2009.
Vesuvio Bakery was opened in 1920 by Nunzio and Jennie Dapolito. Their son Anthony was born the same year on nearby Houston Street. He was the oldest of five boys and began delivering bread from a horse-drawn bread wagon (in 1937, the family acquired a truck). Anthony ran the bakery until 2002 when he sold it to Lisa and Christine Gigante (his sisters-in-law), who reopened it as a bakery/cafe, adding a few tables and small menu. Their bread continued to be baked in their coal oven.
Anthony became a well known political activist, carrying the unofficial title "mayor of Greenwich Village." His bakery became an informal meeting place for community members. He served on the community board and fought for numerous causes, including work with Jane Jacobs against the highly controversial NYC urban planner Robert Moses.
Anthony died at age 82 in 2003.
And I must admit one of the many secret reasons that I (and many others) love this place - that color ...

Related Postings: Vesuvio, Jane Jacobs.

Pick Two

Many years ago while waiting in line at Corinne Offset at 737 Broadway to pick up a small printing job, my eye caught a sign which expressed a concept unique to me at the time. It said: "Pick two out of three: Fast Good Cheap."
As I pondered the possible combinations of two, I saw the cleverness of this trinity of attributes. Make something Fast and Good, but then it will not be cheap.
Fast and cheap, but it will not be good. Good and cheap but it will take a long time. In design and engineering, the concept of a triangle built on these three constraints is known as the Project Triangle (the Project Management Triangle uses Scope, Time and Cost.) In these triangles, the constraints are interrelated and it is not possible to optimize all three.
With businesses, I do believe it is possible to find all three at a high level and when you do, these are the places that are exalted. B&H Photo is an example where you can get Good, Fast and Cheap - that's why so many love shopping there.
In the world of restaurants, the Zagat Survey of restaurants grades restaurants with four criteria: Food, Decor, Service, Cost. However, you could grade restaurants using a Project Triangle, by ignoring decor. Many rate restaurants this way, especially where a customer is not looking for a true dining experience.
L'Annam at 121 University place has been in business for 7 years. The owner manager, Michael Zhao, is from China, the host John is from Malaysia and the cook, Vietnamese. It gets some very mixed reviews. Many of the complaints are due to lack of authenticity. Your eating experience there will be much more enjoyable if you do not expect something like authentic Pho - for that, perhaps head elsewhere.
Most agree that this place is Fast and Cheap. How Good the food is, is where the disagreements lie. For a place in this price range, I find the atmosphere very roomy and pleasant. I are always treated cordially by host John with a perpetual smile and who I have now nicknamed the Happy Man. If you visit, see how it stacks up in the Project Triangle ...

Some Fun: Variations have been applied to many human endeavors.
College: Work, Sleep, or Play – Pick two
Men: Handsome, High-Earner, Faithful – Pick two
Bicycles: Strong, Light, Cheap - Pick any two

Catch a Wave

In the years I have lived in New York, I have witnessed a myriad of trends and fads. With many of these, it seemed there was no end in sight and that it would become a permanent part of the city's cultural landscape. And then as quickly as it came, it was gone - in some cases almost completely, in others, varying degrees of vestiges remain.
There was disco fever. I had a friend who took dance lessons with his wife at the very disco in Brooklyn (2001 Odyssey) where John Travolta performed in Saturday Night Fever. Disco roller skating became a popular spinoff with skating circles in the parks (still one in Central Park). For a time, small roller skating clubs opened - skating was done ad nauseum in a circle to DJ music.
During the same period, enormous boomboxes were toted and seen in the parks and streets. One of the few benefactors was Duracell - most of these required 8 D-cell batteries and only lasted some part of one day. Supporting your machine became tantamount to a drug habit.
There was the break dancing phenomenon with many youths spinning on all parts of their bodies including their heads on makeshift stages - cardboard on the sidewalks.
And then there were those "exclusive" clubs like Studio 54 and the Mudd Club with lines of patrons hoping they were special enough to be chosen for admission by arrogant, power-wielding bouncers. Ironically, in many of these, the throngs on the street were more interesting than the scene in the clubs themselves.
Even crime appeared trendlike. Graffiti on subway trains became a virtual icon for New York - witness movies like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and The French Connection. Heroin users graced the parks. Broken car windows for radio theft were daily occurrences.
Puzzling was the rapid rise and fall of gelaterias. Many of these small shops were beautifully put together only to be dismantled in a short time. Most of the remaining shops (like Café Dante) were there before the trend and after the dust settled.
The man in the photo is reminiscent of the rise of Andean street musicians in the late 1980s. The streets on weekends (and subway system) found many small troupes playing Andean folk music - mostly from Ecuador and Peru, with panpipes, flutes and strings. 

One of the recent complaints worldwide about street musicians is the use of backing tapes and amplification systems, allowing a solo performer to play with recorded backup. Apart from the typically excessive volume is the rather "muzak" or schmaltzy character of the overall result. But the advantages to the musician are many - no need to organize a group or split tips, becoming a one-man band.
Other trends did become part of mainstream culture like skateboarding and the migration to "new" neighborhoods.
Every corner of the planet has its trends, fads and cultural movements and many of these become global. But in New York City, with the chutzpah of the people, the large numbers of adopters and the tolerance of the residents, these things take on a larger dimension and are frequently exported. 

Living here is like playing in the ocean - sometimes I get caught in a wave, other times I just let it pass me by, waiting for the next one ...

Itsy Bitsy

In the time I have lived in this city, I have looked off and on at many real estate properties for sale, both apartments and small buildings. In these travels I have been privy to see places, most of which were only available for tiny windows of time in decades.
One of them was 75 1/2 Bedford Street, known as the "Narrowest House in the Village" (or alternately, the narrowest in New York City). The three-story building with its stepped gable roof line was built in 1873, squeezed into a carriage between the neighboring buildings. Its most well known occupant was Edna St. Vincent Millay who lived there from 1923 to 1924 - it has often been referred to as the Edna St Vincent Millay building. Other past occupants include anthropologist Margaret Mead, John Barrymore and cartoonist William Steig. The property has had an interesting cast of occupants and owners - read about it here in Christopher Gray's article in the New York Times.
This property is so often written of and included in tours and books that I have left it on the back burner until today. But it is a worthy candidate for this website and if you have not seen it, you should, sitting as it does in one of the most charming areas in the entire city, around the bend from one of my favorite spots - Commerce Street (an ironic name for one of the quietest streets in the city).
The building sports a plaque, one of many in this neighborhood, proclaiming its historic heritage. These plaques or medallions are always a worthwhile read even for the seasoned New Yorker. The former residents of these homes are frequently household names as are many of the historic facts.
There are places whose charm, quaintness and uniqueness do not supersede their problems and this is one of them. Unique in its size - the width of 9 1/2 feet is the fact always included in even the shortest descriptions. However, being the narrowest building in New York City is not a desirable feature for living and in fact this property was on the market at one time for a decade before someone could see it as a habitable place. It was at this time that I visited it and my memory of it is of a horrid, squalid place that was and absolute mess and so claustrophobic as to be uninhabitable. I had been warned by the broker but still expected a place that with vision had potential. There are several peculiarly proportioned, scaled and shaped properties in New York. Wedges, slivers and itsy bitsy places. See the links below for some of them ...

Related Postings: Skinny, Bite, Vilequebrin, 121 Charles, Bomb Factory, 23 Skidoo, Seven Deadly Sins, Tongues and Flames. 

Time Misspent

A travel book I much enjoyed was Europe Through the Back Door by Rick Steves. It became popular enough to spin off a TV series. Rick has a listing of "Bad Towns & Tourist Traps." He prefaces it by saying that he is reluctant to make such a list but feels his readers/travelers likely have too little time, and his list will help avoid time misspent. There is merit to this argument, particularly when a place is prominent and likely to be seen by a visitor in his/her travels.
The same applies to restaurants - there are only so many meals to be had in a day and it is a shame when a visitor spends time and money only to be disappointed and a much better choice could as easily have been made, had he or she only been forewarned. 

Caliente Cab Co., at 61 7th Ave South, was established in 1984 (the company also franchises, so you may come across other locations). At the Yelp site there were 65 customer reviews with too many one-star reviews to dismiss as atypical or the writing of an eccentric. Those that loved the place tended to favor the oversized margaritas and party atmosphere. If you would like more particulars regarding this Greenwich Village Mexican restaurant, read the Yelp reviews here.
Perhaps more interesting than the food or drinks is an incident in 2007 after the Gay Pride Parade when a woman, Khadijah Farmer, was thrown out of a woman's bathroom by an employee bouncer who acted on a complaint that there was a man in the women's bathroom. From the story in the New York Times (see it here):

“He began pounding on the stall door saying someone had complained that there was a man inside the women’s bathroom, that I had to leave the bathroom and the restaurant,” Ms. Farmer said. “Inside the stall door, I could see him. That horrified me, and it made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I said to him, ‘I’m a female, and I’m supposed to be in here.’ After I came out of the bathroom stall, I attempted to show him my ID to show him that I was in the right place, and he just refused to look at my identification. His exact words were, ‘Your ID is neither here nor there,’ which means that my ID didn’t matter to him.” ... "She said the bouncer followed her up the stairs and back to the table, asked her party to pay for the appetizers they had already eaten, and then made them leave the restaurant."

According to the article, Farmer experiences being mistaken for a man on a daily basis, but she has never needed to offer identification.
So if your are lured by the large sculpture, colorful graphics, outdoor seating, the mustachioed 1950s Studebaker taxi, loud music with a party atmosphere, sports TV, a happy hour with oversized margaritas and you don't need to eat or use a bathroom, Caliente Cab Co. may be for you :)

Update: In May, 2008, the Khadijah Farmer lawsuit was settled. Farmer was paid $35,000 in damages. $15,000 was also paid to the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund which handled the case.

Rear Window

If you are interested in film and New York City, I would highly recommend the Hitchcock classic, Rear Window, starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. The film, a virtual shrine to voyeurism, takes place in a Greenwich Village apartment, where Stewart, confined to a wheelchair while recuperating from a broken leg, spies on his neighbor's apartment and observes a series of activities which lead him to believe a murder has been committed. The film is very engaging and we get what feels like an added bonus - plenty of time with Grace Kelly on the screen in charming repartee with Stewart. The film has been highly applauded and a winner of 4 academy awards and numerous other accolades. Many feel that much of the film's appeal is because of its voyeuristic premise. Some go further to say that part of the appeal of film itself owes to its voyeuristic nature and the inherent desire of most people to watch others secretly.

People do like people watching and cities are perfect environments to do so. I recall my surprise at the table arrangements in Parisian cafes where seats for two are joined side by side facing outwards rather than each other. This made so much sense that I was immediately puzzled why this practice was (and still is) virtually nonexistent in New York City.

There's no better place for people watching than New York and with millions of residents, there are large numbers who have long given up concern about who's watching what. Public Displays of Affection (PDA - see here) and all other manner of exhibitionistic behavior abounds and for the voyeur, this city is the Devil's Playground.

The woman in the photo was relaxing on the third floor above Broadway in SoHo, certainly not a place where there is an expectation of privacy. Fire escapes in New York City often function as outdoor terraces and over the years our office has been entertained with various activities there - see Window Washer here.

The scenario is reminiscent of another film, The Time Machine (from 1960) where Rod Taylor, on the start of his many journey's in time, observes a store mannequin and its changing wardrobe. The window and mannequin become icons of stability in a world of changing fashion. In the 19 years I have faced Broadway, the buildings have stayed the same and only the names and faces have changed. With such unabashed displays from a front window facing a major thoroughfare, there's no need for a rear window ...

Banking Crisis

One thing that can be refreshing at times about children is their brutal honesty and frequent lack of pretension. They say what they think and do what they want without regard to social norms.
On Saturday, the city hit 79 degrees and it appeared that every able bodied New Yorker was on the streets and in the parks. A group of street musicians were performing in Washington Square Park and had an instrument case open for contributions. A father had taken the opportunity to teach his child the ways and means of supporting the arts. His daughter made a number of trips to and from the open case to her father, who supplied her with a coin on each trip. Satisfied with her deposits, she even closed the case for protection.
Soon, however, this child quickly appeared to see the opportunity and attempted to make a major withdrawal, reopening the case and dipping in some money. Why not just take what is available? Perhaps she, like many others in today's banking crisis, had concerns over the security of her deposits. The entire thing became a small theater piece for the entertainment of all - the music took a back seat to the performance.
Some may feel this was just typical of a child's behavior, not socialized and left unchecked. It can be debated, however, whether adults are any better or just more covert in their execution. 
Admonitions were not adequate to dissuade her and the father had to resort to a dragging ritual. But Dad should have realized that one could do much worse in handling money and investments (as most of us have). Perhaps he (and we) should see her actions as a very good way to handle a banking crisis :)

Get A Life

We have all heard the taunt or admonition, get a life. But what about those less fortunate who, because they have not been dealt a good set of cards or who are at a point in life where they are down on their luck, may not have a life to get? And if one does not have the good fortune of an extended family or available friends, the world can be a lonely place.
I can tell you from having lived alone at various times, that I believe being in New York City provides a lot more entertainment and distraction at those needed times. Like it or not, gossip in one form or another occupies a large part of people's social interactions, particularly those without a life. New York City offers enormous fodder for the lonely yenta.
Two friends and I sat in a vehicle in a parking spot on Fifth Avenue, waiting for the appointed time indicated on the parking sign to set us free. We became very intrigued by the vehicle in front of us, shown in the photo, so for the duration of our captivity, we began to speculate, becoming amateur detectives. One companion was a former New York City resident, Brooklyn born and street smart. We observed a few things. The vehicle was a car for hire, indicated by the T&LC (Taxi and Limousine Commission) at the bottom of the license plate. The man hovering was obviously the driver waiting for his client. This was not an ordinary client for several reasons. The vehicle was a Mercedes, it was parked outside an extremely fancy doorman building on fifth avenue in one of the most prime locations in the city. Lastly, and most interesting to us, was an odd sequence of letters, FHAAHHMS, that certainly must be a vanity license plate.
Now I suppose that our indulgence in the minutiae of life is not unique to the city - the occasional interloper in a small town is often subjected to the same scrutiny and speculation by idle gossipers. However, for those without a life, what better place to be than New York City. Walk out of your door anytime of day or night and you enter a world that is a veritable circus, with the broadest range of humans on exhibit that you are ever likely to meet. Here you can see a posting, Spike, of a man that I did .... and who I recently met at Astor Hair. Where else could he dress like this and strut with pride and confidence and be treated like a celebrity? André, who I featured in Out There on 8/22/07 and Fashion Forward, is someone I now frequently meet and greet on the streets of NYC. I have since learned a little more about fashionista André Johnson and that he has graced the cover of French Vogue in 2007.
Any thoughts about the letters on that license plate, FHAAHHMS?

Note: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of "Get a Life" was from a 1983 article in the Washington Post: "Gross me out, I mean, Valley Girls was, like, ohmigod, it was last year, fer sure! I mean, get a life! Say what?"

Posts of the Unusual: Out There, Spike, Narcissism Gone Wild, Spring Madness, Superheroes, Snake Charmer and Circus Amok

Gorillas and Cookies

NYU is seen by many Greenwich Village residents as the neighborhood 800-pound gorilla. Every real estate move it makes is highly contentious and seen by opponents as the act of an avaricious behemoth whose appetite for properties is never sated. Perhaps a new variant of an old joke might be: "What real estate does an 800-pound gorilla buy?" "Whatever it wants."

New York University is located in Manhattan and fully integrated into the fabric of the city. Unlike a rural University with land, in order to expand, NYU acquires many real estate properties and demolishes them. To purchase prime properties which are located in the heart of its campus, NYU must compete and throw its weight around.

When renovating properties it already owns, it still runs it problems. Some of NYU's properties lie within the Greenwich Village Historic District, so it has regulations to conform to. Others not protected by the landmark district, still lie in a neighborhood very sensitive to architectural change and rife with community activists and preservationists.

In 2001, NYU demolished the brick house where Edgar Allen Poe last lived in 1844-45 for expansion of the law school. This was met with huge community opposition and efforts to preserve the home were derailed. Read about it here.

The building in the photo is of 22 Washington Square North, previous home of the NYU admissions office, where 37,026 applications in 2008 were processed, the largest number of any private university in the United States. The place is being entirely gutted and will be used by the NYU law school as a research facility. I was amazed at the extent of work - the entire interior has been completed removed - only the shell remained - note the sky which can be seen from the front entrance. The property (along with #19) are part of one of the finest rows of Greek Revival townhouses in the United States and located on Washington Square Park, one of the most desirable locations in New York City. The location is also important, because the park is NYU's de facto campus.

Recently, NYU has plans to demolish the four buildings and theater which housed the Provincetown Playhouse at 133-139 MacDougal Street. The redevelopment of the playhouse will be the first time planning is done with support of the Community Task Force on NYU Development. Hopes are that this new approach will bring harmony between NYU and Village neighbors. Perhaps NYU can upgrade its image from the 800-pound Gorilla to that of Sesame Street's Cookie Monster:)

Related Postings: Washington Square North, Lights, Camera, Action!, Evening Arch, Washington Mews, MacDougal Alley, Left Bank New York.

More of Us

As I wrote in Weather Means Whether, I usually feel there comes a day which undeniably heralds the start of spring. Winter coats are put away for good, even if there are a few times where they would be appropriate.
This year however, I'm not feeling it. We have had a roller coaster ride as far as temperatures go with a preponderance of colder days than normal.
Flowers are blooming and trees are budding but they feel like an empty victory over winter. A battle not really quite won and certainly not a trouncing. The problem for a place like New York City with an ill-defined spring, is that when the warm weather finally and clearly arrives for good, the pent up desires released will manifest like a siege - masses rain down on the streets and parks like starved animals, irrationally driven to just be outside at any cost.
Visitors arrive in hordes almost as reminders of the unpleasant hot, humid and crowded days of summer to come. It's not that I dislike spring or summer, it's that they often come too abruptly after teasing in fits and starts.
The other consideration with seasonal changes in the city is the lack of a full immersion experience. In many areas there are virtually no indications of season other than temperature. I have the good fortune of overlooking a park - my views are filled with trees and birds. But even so, the contrast of the seasonal experience in Manhattan with the countryside is extraordinary. The overwhelming smell of earth in the spring is one sensation missed here. A ride in the country will quickly dispel any illusions that you are having a full Spring experience.
The flowers and new green growth are wonderful of course, but they often appear to be window dressing in a man made world of concrete, asphalt, glass and steel that always appears as foreground or background. Perhaps the real problem with nature's bounty in the city is that there are more of us then them ...

WFF 'N PROOF

When I was in high school, I used to enjoy a game called WFF 'N PROOF - The Game of Modern Logic. This 1961 classic, developed by University professor Layman Allen, was said to have the "complexity of chess and the excitement of poker." Not everyone felt that way of course, and I must admit that the circle of friends enjoying the game was rather small.
I liked the study of logic but I never realized these skills would be necessary to understanding something as mundane as New York City parking regulations. Often, multiple signs are placed on one block with rules of inclusion and exclusion. Some throw up their hands and just take other parked cars as a sign of permissibility. At times, I see nervous visitors puzzling over the arcane and cryptic signs, worried if they are legally parked. Depending on their apparent level of angst, I usually try to throw out my interpretation of the signs to allay their fears. They would be much more worried if they new the consequences of being towed in New York City - the outrageous costs of the parking ticket and towing (at least $255), not to mention the nightmare of traveling to the car pound and retrieving your vehicle.
I was surprised and pleased to see this graphic solution to making the parking regulations understandable. This, in tandem with the relatively new Muni Meters (replacing coin operated parking meters), makes parking less painful than it used to be. However, getting a spot still requires the same set of skills - patience of a saint, luck of the draw, tenacity of snapping turtle, aggressiveness of a badger and often the skill of a surgeon and understanding of geometry to parallel park in spots only slightly larger than the vehicle itself. I have seen many flustered drivers actually abort and abandon a parking spot which was in fact large enough.
However, these signs only simplify an already daunting and nearly impossible task - parking here will never approach the relative effortlessness found outside the city. When in very rural areas, I never cease to enjoy just parking at the curb wherever I need to go - I stand outside my car and marvel at the ease. Somehow, I feel something is wrong - there must be some local parking ordinance I am violating that everyone knows except me. And where I am to use my skills in geometry or WFF 'N PROOF?

Note: You can see WFF 'N PROOF at their website here.

Easter Parade 2009

This is my 4th year at the annual Easter Parade and Easter Bonnet Festival. The dress goes way beyond the traditional bonnet and fancy dresses for Easter Sunday. There are some extravagant and outrageous outfits. The "parade" is really is more of a loose gathering - there is no marching or parade movement from one destination to another. It takes place along Fifth Avenue from 49th to 57th Streets, which is closed to traffic, 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The best spot is around St Patrick's Cathedral which is where I concentrated my strolling and shooting. The weather was rather brisk but sunny and a good time was had by all.

If you want to get a look at what the Easter Parade is like, you can see my blog postings and photos the last three years using the links:
Easter Parade 2006
Easter Parade 2007
Easter Parade 2008

Bubbles

There are few things that are as benign and such an expression of unmitigated joy as bubbles. Joy - now there's a word used so carefully and sparingly. We find it book titles, such as The Joy of Cooking, but spoken of alone as an emotional state, it is rarely used.
Perhaps unadulterated joy, like play, is often seen as the domain of children, whose innocence carries no responsibility of deservedness or permission. For most adults, happiness as the result of play must be earned and judging from the actions of most New Yorkers, apparently few have earned enough to spend it playing.
When you watch the SoHo bubble man in action on the corner of Spring Street and Broadway, you can see the range of feelings about play by the reactions of passersby. Most will ply their way through the congestion around the vendor, seeing the whole thing as an inconvenience, an irritation or waste of time. Others, will stop to capture a little moment of joy as respite from stresses of the day. There are those who will stop in wonderment. And I am sure there are some that are thinking, is this activity suitable for a grown man? As often is the case, they have made the mistake of judging a book by its cover.
Dondi McKellar is a man, in fact, he is a disabled veteran, having served six years in the United States Navy. He hails from North Carolina, has been a New Yorker since 1985 and selling Bubble Guns on the streets of SoHo for the last four years. A short conversation with Dondi quickly established that beneath his smile lived a warm human being. He was quite happy to share details of his life, show me his vendor permit and encouraged my photography.
Personally, I think I will heed with the words of Willy Wonka - a little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men. :)

NOTE: An interesting study on how happiness can be contagious was done by Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, a physician and social scientist at Harvard Medical School. See the article here in the New York Times.

Finest

New Yorker's have grown accustomed to a litany of superlatives regarding many facets of human endeavor and achievement in this city. Best, largest, first, oldest, most ... 
Conveniently, the NYPD fits right in - the New York Police Department is not only the largest in the United States, it was the first - established in 1845. And here in today's photo, we have, appropriately, the 1st precinct, located in lower Manhattan at at 16 Ericsson Place at Varick Street. This precinct is also one of the few that stables horses - see my article with photos here.
The city has used various nicknames for groups of uniformed city employees - New York has the Finest (police), Bravest (fire), Strongest (sanitation), and Boldest (corrections) and recently a marketing campaign to recruit teachers has asked to "Join New York's Brightest." The use of Finest for the NYPD, is, according to etymologist Barry Popik, probably the oldest:

Several sources claim that it was coined by police chief George W. Matsell. "Finest" probably started life as "Best" and probably dates from 1874. The comedian Gus Williams starred in the play One of the Finest in the early 1880s. I believe that "the finest police in the world" is meant to be a similar phrase to Civil War General Joseph Hooker's "finest army on the planet."

Popik gives many other references from this time period - you can read them at his site here, along with origins of Bravest, Strongest, Boldest and their earliest usage in regards to uniformed workers. These terms, including New York's Finest, are primarily media terms. Citizens rarely use these words, most often just referring to the police as the "cops."
Of course, whether or not the NYPD lives up to its nickname given them 135 years ago, is another question. Certainly the NYPD has had its share of scandals, perhaps to be expected allowing for such a large police force, large city population, the number of crimes committed and the violent nature of America.
I am sure working in an environment where an individual is constantly exposed to the dark side has an impact. Also, being in situations which are potentially life threatening means serious judgements have to be made, often with only a moment to make them and of course some of these decisions will be flawed.
And of course there are always the bad apples in the barrel that give others a bad name - many of these are the raison d'être behind the big public scandals of New York's Finest ...

TIDBIT: When registering the domain name for this website, New York Daily Photo, I noticed that the initials NYDP used the same four letters as the NYPD. This would make a very short and simple website address. Excited by the prospect of using NYDP.com, a little research turned up the fact that it was, of course, aready taken :(

Queens West

I was shocked when I discovered this unfamiliar area of Queens with new buildings sprouting everywhere, Gantry Plaza State Park, and waterfront vistas of the Manhattan skyline and the 59th Street bridge. When investigating the neighborhood behind the photos from my excursion, I was equally surprised to learn of the scale of this huge development going on in my backyard, unbeknownst to me. See my series of photos here.

This area, now being called Queens West, is essentially the Hunter's Point neighborhood of Long Island City, Queens. A large number of high-rise residential buildings are planned (map here). The building in the photo is the Powerhouse. Ground was broken in 1994 for this 74-acre commercial and residential development. Read all the details at the Queens West website here. You can also read the 1994 New York Times article by architecture critic Herbert Muschamp here.
Citylights was the first completed structure in 1998, a 43-story, 522-apartment building designed by renowned architect Cesar Pelli.

There are so many elements to the success of a redeveloped area - location, transportation, views, housing and building stock. Architecture critics analyze these elements, along with the merits and demerits of the architecture of the buildings built or proposed.
DUMBO Brooklyn is a great example of a neighborhood that had all the right elements just waiting to be discovered - one subway stop from Manhattan, views of Manhattan and the bridges, cobbled streets, and great industrial buildings.

The difference with Queens West, like Battery Park City to which it has been compared, is that all the residential and commercial structures are to be newly built which, like most urban planning, is a highly contentious and risky proposition. With an area like DUMBO with the architecture already existent, there were no unknowns. People started moving there because they liked what they saw. In the case of Queens West, developers have to create what they hope will be successful, and everyone has a different vision of what that should be. Many planned neighborhoods and cities, even with large budgets and great minds, have been controversial, such as Brasilia. Creating an entire environment en masse, rather than a place developing organically, is a great challenge. I hope Queens West is a success. The site is spectacular - I suggest you visit if you can...

Mother Teresa

When you start to hear things like "You can't make everyone happy" or "there will always be people who complain" in reference to a business, I start to worry that these words may be those of defenders of a place with problems. Because there are differences and some places are just better or worse than others.
It's a question of fundamental attitude with a customer problem or complaint. Is the customer guilty until proven innocent or innocent until proven guilty? Where is the burden of proof placed?
Admittedly, industry profit margins and product lines probably do make a difference. If you are selling high priced musical instruments, you cannot be as cavalier about returns as perhaps clothing retailers with larger markups. With expensive products, the dealer and/or manufacturer must deal with returned products. However, you have a similar scenario at B&H Photo, where margins are razor thin on high ticket items. But you are not put through the inquisition on a return. You can return delicate products costing thousands of dollars with no trouble.
In reading about Sam Ash, I did see an inordinate number of negative reviews. Even Mother Teresa has her detractors (notably Christopher Hitchens) but certainly not as many as Benito Mussolini. I also acknowledge that individuals are perhaps more inclined to publicly complain rather than praise and the Internet has made this process infinitely easier, but customer reviews do count for something. There are only so many of these complaints, it is hard to dismiss them as being part of the normal state off affairs in a retail business - at some point these complaints and admonitions have to be seriously examined.
My visit to Sam Ash was pleasant. I had a brief conversation with some of the staff about how businesses like theirs are often seen as the evil empire pitted against the small mom and pop like Manny's Music. We agreed it would be interesting to see the how customers would view Sam Ash in the future. Perhaps some blend of those bemoaning the disappearance of real places like Manny's and other, younger customers who, with no experience of the past, have just adapted.
When I was there, a teenage boy was in the midst of a guitar purchase - the boy was busy coveting his possession to be, while his parents were embroiled in how the finances were to be handled. For the time being, no one seemed concerned with the past, the future, customer reviews, Benito Mussolini, Christopher Hitchens or Mother Teresa :)

Note: Sam Ash is a national chain of musical instrument retailers, founded in 1924, with over 50 locations in the USA. The one photographed is located on music row, i.e. West 48th Street across the street from Manny's Music - see the story here.

traPt

Pratt Institute is considered one of the finest art schools in the United States, known for its programs in architecture, art, fashion, photography, design, illustration, interior design, digital arts. Unlike NYU or Hunter College in Manhattan, whose campuses are essentially the city of New York, Pratt is cloistered - the campus is completely closed and gated. Add to this its location in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn which at one time was one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city and you can appreciate how clever I thought a student's T-Shirt was that he was brandishing some years ago with the word traPt on it - an anagram of the word Pratt and indicative of how some students have felt. Nearby Myrtle Avenue was nicknamed Murder Avenue in the 1990s.
Certainly the neighborhood has gentrified significantly over the years and has benefited by a tremendous reduction of crime city wide, attributed to the NYPD's Compstat program and an increase in the numbers of police officers in NYC, starting in 1990. I was curious about the actual crime statistics in the neighborhood, so rather than rely on perceptions or anecdotal evidence, I decided to go right to the source - NYPD website and look at the Compstat statistics for the 88th precinct, which covers Pratt Institute. I compared it to the 6th precinct in Greenwich Village, home of NYU. I expected to see a much greater disparity but was surprised to see that the crime statistics were not that disparate. You can see them here: the 6th Precinct and the 88th Precinct.
The atmosphere of a real University campus is quite special in New York City, and Pratt is graced with a 25 acres which includes a sculpture garden featuring a variety of works. The work in the photo, Welcome II by alumni Raphale Zollinger, is one of the most arresting along with Philip Grausman’s large idealized white female fiberglass head, Leucantha. Welcome II's 5 naked prisoners are cast in concrete. See front view and read the the plaque here.
An ironic work for such a beautiful garden - perhaps relics of feeling traPt ...

Times Are A-Changin'

Yes, in NYC, stores openings are occasionally media events. Topshop, a British based clothing chain of over 100 stores, opened its first US store yesterday at 478 Broadway (south of Broome Street) in SoHo. What we have here is where buzz meets the American passion for shopping. The awaited opening was covered by every local media group. For over a week before the opening, a pink Topshop van had been busy giving out free tote bags which included gift cards worth up to $500.
Model Kate Moss, Jennifer Lopez and Mark Antony were at the ribbon cutting on Thursday, April 2, as was owner Sir Philip and Lady Green. Kate Moss, who has been doing a fashion collection with Topshop since 2006 will be introducing her spring line with the opening of the SoHo store. I arrived in the evening. A tented press area with seating had been installed. Evidence was still on hand of a media event with network TV, professional video cams, photographers and security. Customers were being corralled through gates. Lines wrapped around three sides of a block - Broadway, Broome and Crosby Streets.
Topshop's flagship store is on Oxford Street in London and is the world's largest fashion store - 90,000 square feet on four floors with as many as 30,000 visitors per day. The New York City store occupies 25,000 square feet on four floors.
The store is only two blocks from Canal Street, remarkable since Broadway has been decidedly rougher the closer one gets to Canal and historically has been rather downscale and most immune to gentrification. The arrival of Topman with Citibank flanking one side and a new J. Crew coming soon on the other side with Bloomingdales less than one block away certainly heralds a new age for this immediate area, extending the boundaries of SoHo chic and stamping out the last vestiges of industry along these blocks of Broadway just north of Canal.
Canal Street and the area around it has been known for many things - industrial supplies like Space Surplus Metals (gone), Canal Rubber, Industrial Plastics (gone) and Tunnel Machinery (gone); Chinatown and the Manhattan Bridge going East; the Holland Tunnel and discount shops with fake designer products. Adjectives like cheap, tawdry, seedy and dirty would all apply. But the times they are a-changin' ...

Eye Candy

Business moves in mysterious ways and there come times when forces seem to point one way. Right now, for many retailers, the merchandising road is pointing to Time's Square, an area beleaguered and blighted for eons, improving in fits and starts, but always drawn back to some variant, displaying elements of its historic sleazy character. Rents are high and even well heeled retailers during its recent improvement phase have closed: witness the closings of the Disney and Warner Brothers stores.
I have written about the M&Ms Store at Times Square - see Branding Gone Wild and Let's Have a Parade. Literally across the street at 48th and Broadway is competitor Hershey with their own shrine to chocolate. This store is a much bigger experience on the outside - many visitors have been nonplussed by the inside. But, the small one floor interior space is certainly a place to get your Hershey's chocolate fix and sample their extensive line. See my photos of the interior here. Unlike the much larger themed M&Ms store, however, it is not a total immersion experience or world.
The thing to see here is the exterior, purportedly the largest permanent fixture ever built in Times Square. From their opening press release October 28, 2002:

HERSHEY'S spectacular -- towering 215 ft. tall and 60 ft. wide, making it the largest permanent fixture ever constructed in Times Square -- features a whimsical version of the original HERSHEY'S chocolate factory, complete with smokestacks, just like the one in Milton Hershey's hometown, Hershey, PA. Thanks to 34 dimensional props, four steam machines, over 4,000 chasing lights, 30 programmable gel lights, 56 neon channel letters, 14 front-lit signs, and just about every other major signage technique utilized today, the chocolate factory spectacular will:

Feature an over sized HERSHEY(R)'S milk chocolate bar
Light up a pyramid of HERSHEY(R)'S KISSES(R) with colors that change with the seasons
Showcase a JOLLY RANCHER(R) candy wind sculpture
Spout steam from the HERSHEY(R)'S cocoa cup
Spin BREATH SAVERS(R) mints above the sidewalks of New York

The Hershey Company is no longer just the chocolate company of Milton Snavely Hershey, who in 1907 created the Hershey's Kiss. Read their history here. They now manufacture a myriad of chocolate and non-chocolate confections including: Reese's, Milk Duds, Kit Kat, Krackel, Rolo, Skor, Cadbury's, Almond Joy, Mounds, O'Henry, Mr. Goodbar, York Peppermint Pattie, Jolly Rancher, PayDay, Ice Breakers, Good and Plenty and Twizzlers.
I would not make the store a travel destination, but if you are visiting Times Square, take a look above you at 1593 Broadway at what (like M&M's display across the street) is literally Eye Candy ...

Bovine Love

Generally speaking, you do not walk down a familiar street and expect to be greeted by a newly installed massive steel bull. This fellow was in front of Cipriani's in SoHo on West Broadway, discovered after an expedition to the Peter Lik gallery just up the street.
Speaking to a waiter at the restaurant, I was informed that this was the work of Arturo Di Modica and that it just mysteriously appeared on the sidewalk with no explanation.
Di Modica is best known for his charging bull in the financial district. That bull was originally installed after the 1987 stock market crash. It was placed in front of the New York Stock Exchange by the artist on December 15, 1989 without permission as a Christmas gift to the city. It was seized by the police but due to public furor, was reinstalled downtown in the plaza at Bowling Green. The bull is extremely popular as a photo subject, often with visitors on, besides or grasping the bull in some manner.
There seems to be a fascination with the bovine family. In 2000, the streets of New York City were graced with cows as part of an international public art exhibit. This is an interesting choice of animal, since I have not thought of cows as being seen to be particularly charming or attractive. The concept for the Cow Parade originated in Switzerland with art director Walter Knapp and sculptor Pascal Knapp who holds the copyrights to the various cow shapes seen in the exhibits. Perhaps the Swiss connection provides some explanation of the choice of cows as animal subject.
When confronted with the Di Modica sculpture on West Broadway, I, like many others, was seized with the inexplicable desire to embrace a bull and be photographed by a friend. There's just something about a bull that makes you want to hug him - especially when he is frozen in time and unable to charge :)