Hudson Heights, Bennett Avenue Between 181st and 184th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

I had planned some bold new walk today after therapy on 86th Street, but then realized I was one can away from being out of cat food. So instead, I took the subway up to 181st Street and finished Bennett Avenue on my way to the vet. It was cold today, glove weather, and by the time I got there, my fingers were numb, so maybe it was better not to be bold today.

Not much to look at street level on this stretch of Bennett Avenue, had to look up. Look at that sky! I even decreased the saturation.

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Inwood, Broadway at 215th Street

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This is the garage for M&T Management. I look at it every day as I wait for the light to change.

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Inwood, Elevated Subway Platform at West 215th Street

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Going home after my pre-Thanksgiving dinner walk last Thursday, I've just gotten off the uptown train and I'm looking across to the downtown platform.

You can almost imagine this guy is staring down at the Manhattan River. Except, of course, there is no Manhattan River. That I know of.

Inwood, Post Avenue Between Academy and Dyckman Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Farther down the block, there is an identical facade except that there is no green paint detailing the swaglike thing and the molding; it's all that reddish brown color. Here, there's a super with a decorator sensibility, I suppose.

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Inwood, Post Avenue at 204th Street

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


The rest of Post Avenue was lined with standard apartment buildings, uh, except for this block of Swiss chalets, putting up a brave front.

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Inwood, Post Avenue Between 207th and 204th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Talk about your color! Did I go to the right part of town, or what?

Do not be misled by the post title into thinking that this block is three blocks long. On this side of Tenth Avenue, there are no 205th and 206th Streets. On the other side, there are, as well as 201, 202 and 203. Streets up here do pretty much as they please without having to conform to the stodgy downtown grid.

Here, I'll show you:

Inwood, Tenth Avenue Between 207th and 206th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

If you scroll down to last night's post, you'll see the bottom corner of this ambitious mural, looking down from the subway stairs. Now I'm on the street, looking up.

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Inwood, Tenth Avenue from the 207th Street Subway Stairs

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Color promised and delivered. This is taken from the elevated subway stop at 207th Street.

This walk had to be brief so I took the subway one stop, walked the length of Post Avenue (3½ blocks) and came on home.

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Inwood, Citystairs, 215th Street Between Park Terrace East and Broadway

Mary Sargent © 2007 ………………………….. click to enlarge

I headed out this morning for a brief photowalk before I went downtown to Luka's for Thanksgiving dinner. It was beautiful, warm and smelling good and lots of yellow leaves on the stairs. I couldn't resist this shot taken by the stairs before the proper walk started.

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Upper West Side, 87th Street Between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Assuming I can get out early tomorrow for some new photographs, I will try to find some color. I know some of you can't take day after day of this brown, gray, ivory stuff.

And how might I be able to get out early on Thanksgiving? Because I'm in the blessed position of being invited to someone else's Thanksgiving dinner and being told, and this is key, not to bring anything! Except some wine. If I am forced to say what I'm thankful for, that'll be it.

See, the trouble with having everyone say what they're thankful for is that everyone says the same thing: family and friends. You'd be a heel not to. They even did that on the Chris Matthews show last Sunday. Really boring.

But, okay, just to join in, I'm going to say I'm thankful for my Faithful Readers. Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

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Upper West Side, 87th Street Between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Notice something strange and wonderful about this photo? No cars! It's street cleaning day on this side of the street and everyone parked on this side had to move their cars. I must say I like having a clear view here, even though I've argued in favor of cars in the past.

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Upper West Side, 87th Street Between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

For the next few nights, I want to show you townhouses on West 87th Street because they're all so individual in their details and so interesting. It makes me feel how rich we are to have all this to look at.

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Upper West Side, 87th Street Between Broadway and West End Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Here's a photograph of a parking garage. Nice, huh? Wait, wait. Notice the windows above? Here's a wide shot of the building.



Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

I assumed it was an apartment building, now empty, and went over to ask the guys about it. The one on the left said, no, that's where we park the cars! Well, says I, do you know what it was originally? What it was built for? He called in a consultant, the guy on the right, who told me that it was originally a stable! Horses stayed up there! But still, isn't that odd for a stable? Is that the way they built stables in the city? I need to find out.

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Upper West Side, 87th Street at Broadway

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Yesterday morning, after therapy, I walked two blocks on West 87th between Broadway and Riverside Drive. At Riverside the wind was so fierce, I abandoned my plan to walk south a block. I just turned around and came back. The hardships I endure for this blog. Wind! Bright sunlight!

I'm pretty sure this empty store was a good Vietnamese restaurant (before it was a Malaysian restaurant), but I can't look it up because I can't think of its name. If you remember, let me know. I miss their curried okra.

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Inwood, Citystairs Between Park Terrace East and Broadway

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This was at 8:30 this morning on the citystairs or stepstreet that go(es) between Park Terrace East and Broadway. There are 10 flights of 11 stairs each, and I should know because I walk them every time I go to the No. 1 subway, which is often. That makes 110 steps.

Anyway, the sunlight was gorgeous, almost stunning.

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West Village, West 4th Street at Sheridan Square

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Okay, I'm still not current. It rained all day today. Tomorrow, for sure. This was taken one year ago, November 14th. It looks awfully late, but I had just gone downtown after work to get some chocolate at Varsano's which I've already carried on about.

Which reminds me . . . I'm due for a visit.

Across the street is Boxers, a bar/restaurant that no longer exists. I remember the dismay I felt when I first saw it had closed. At night, it was too crowded and noisy for my taste, but in the middle of the day, it was a quiet, low key spot and the perfect place to stop for lunch after shopping at Varsano's and sit by the window and think about how great it was not to be at work.

The thing is, I only discovered that a couple of years ago and only did it twice. Did you ever notice how if there's something you do that you like and you do it at least twice, in later years (or months) you say something like, "That was a great place, I used to go there for lunch . . . " and it sounds like you did it all the time?

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Gramercy, Lexington Avenue Between 22nd and 23rd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


This photograph was taken one year ago to the day on a lunchtime walk. Does that make up for not having a current photo? I wonder where those two are today. Are they still together? Do they still have their jobs?

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Chelsea, 24th Street at Seventh Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


The destination. They had the Kesso yogurt. All is well.

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Chelsea, Seventh Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets

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Along about now seemed like a good time to sit down with a glass of wine and watch the world go by. I can't remember now whether I had the thought and then spotted Porters or spotted Porters and then had the thought. I sat at the middle table there on the edge.

If you're thinking why would anyone want to sit outside on a cloudy, chilly day on an unlovely stretch of street and watch (not the world) but the traffic go by, then maybe you're just not cut out for this urban life. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

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Chelsea, 21st Street between Seventh and Sixth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 ………………..........…………….. click to enlarge


I wonder if there is a subcategory of street art known as commercial street art. I searched the web for an answer and found an interesting roundtable on street art, but they didn't address my question.

This is the side of the building that houses Kove Bros. Hardware, and I imagine that one of the brothers hired a street artist to paint the side of the building. Is it still street art?

I await enlightenment.

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Chelsea, Seventh Avenue Between 20th and 21st Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 ………………….…….. click to enlarge

Seventh Avenue looks kind of like Lexington Avenue with these old tenements and small shops, and in thinking why I don't have the same affection for it, I concluded it was because Seventh Avenue is wider than Lexington. Lexington feels more human size, I guess.

In other news, I am now unemployed. Yes, I got laid off due to hard times and the boss's son, but I got 4 month's severance pay and a wonderful feeling of freedom. Bill tells me that feeling doesn't last, but I plan to enjoy the hell out of it as long as it does.

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Chelsea, Seventh Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………… ….. click to enlarge

I used to print color film at Print Space on 19th Street around the corner. A couple of days after 9/11/2001, three of us went to Peter McManus (on the far left) after printing and had a few gin and tonics. This was a deadly combination – alcohol and 9/11 – and I believe I did wish I was dead before it was over. Missed work the next day, the whole bit.

Oh, the memories.

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Chelsea, 15th Street at Seventh Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2007 ………………………….. click to enlarge

Jensen-Lewis. About 1989, having a little extra money, it occurred to me to spend it on a sofa. Jensen-Lewis had a little ad in the New York Times with a black and white drawing of a couch that looked perfect, so I immediately took the subway down from 110th Street, checked it out, chose my upholstery color (navy blue canvas), and said, deliver it. That is the ideal shopping experience in my opinion.

I still have that couch, by the way, and it's looking a little bedraggled, what with old age and the cats clawing it. Alas, no extra money.

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Chelsea, Seventh Avenue at 14th Street

Mary Sargent © 2007 ………………………….. click to enlarge


I do have a fondness for these newspaper boxes.

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Chelsea, 14th Street at Seventh Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Sunday, two days ago, I realized I was low on Kesso yogurt. I was thrilled when Westside Supermarket reopened and again began carrying it, but they haven't had it now for over a week and I am pessimistic. They keep telling me, maybe tomorrow. So I decided to go down to Whole Foods on 24th Street where I know they have it. Yes, it's that good.

I was going to take the subway to 28th Street, walk to Whole Foods and then continue down Seventh Avenue to 14th Street and come home. Ha ha. The locals were running on the express track, the express was running on the local track and the uptown train was running on the downtown track. I only came by this knowledge the hard way, however, and as a result I went to 14th Street and then back to 14th Street. No 28th Street at all. Maybe on a weekday, I'll give it another try.

But I want to mention the nice MTA lady who explained it all to me at great length, but not in what you would call a coherent or helpful way, but since she was nice I thanked her, and she said, oh, that's okay, that's what I'm here for!

This opening shot is from where I got off the subway at 14th Street. Seventh Avenue is the eastern border of Chelsea according to Wikipedia and that's probably stretching it, and 14th Street the southern. 14th Street is also the southern border of Midtown, which, again seems strange, but of course, that makes it the northern border of Downtown. Damn these borders anyway.

Notice The Donut Pub and try not to think of having donuts with your beer.

Although, now that I do after all think of it, I'm thinking maybe a nice whole wheat donut with a bottle of Guinness could be pretty fine.

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue Between 102nd and 103rd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

And so we bid adieu to West End Avenue. For the end of the actual walk, go to the beginning. I mean, scroll down to October 28 and 27, in that order.

Tomorrow, Chelsea. Don't get excited, it's only Seventh Avenue.

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue Between 100th and 101th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

I didn't say I wouldn't want to live here. I only said it was dull. And after all, Broadway is one short block away.

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue Between 98th and 99th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Go here to see the entire building.


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Upper West Side, West End Avenue Between 97th and 98th Streets

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue between 96th and 97th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

X
X
And so I start my walk up West End Avenue.

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