Washington Heights, 173rd Street at St. Nicholas Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

City street beast in its winter camouflage.

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Washington Heights, Amsterdam Avenue at 173rd Street

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Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Right smack at the end of 173rd Street at Amsterdam Avenue is this arresting building. The sign says Highbridge Play Center. According to the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, which granted landmark status to this building on August 14, 2007, this is a bath house, an Art Moderne-style bath house. Where there's a bath house, there must be a, uh, in this case, a huge swimming pool. Built by Robert Moses in 1936 over a reservoir that was part of the Old Croton Aqueduct. Oh, I'm just paraphrasing what's in the article. You should just go to the article and read it for yourself. It's worth it. There's a picture of the pool, too.

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Washington Heights, 173rd Street Between Audubon and Amsterdam Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……... click to enlarge

173rd Street Between Ft. Washington and Amsterdam Avenues is mostly big solid apartment buildings. You can get a feel for it back at the El Mundo photo last Sunday. Then there's this! If only buildings could speak.

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Washington Heights, 173rd Street Between St. Nicholas and Audubon Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …….. click to enlarge

Here it is: 568 W. 173rd Street. Mission accomplished. I was tempted to turn around and go back (because it was cold and there was no hot coffee to be had on 173rd Street), but there was only one more block to walk to the end of the street, so I trudged on. The worst is leaving one little block undone way out at the edges.

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Washington Heights, 173rd Street Between Wadsworth and St. Nicholas Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……… click to enlarge


A lot of convivial noise was coming out of this place as I walked up the street toward it, so I snuck up on them and was able to get you an inside look at:

Ipico Barber Shop!

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Washington Heights, Wadsworth Avenue at 173rd Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


You have to be fast and slick when you're photographing children.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Otherwise, they catch you at it.

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Washington Heights, Broadway at 173rd Street

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El Mundo. The World.

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Washington Heights, 173rd Street Between Ft. Washington Avenue and Broadway

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I was looking for 568 and 650 West 173rd Street, 2 places where Gladys lived in the 60s. Since I've been walking around New York in a formal sort of way for over two years, one would think I'd have the number system down, but oh, no. This day I had it backwards and was thinking 650 would be farther away as I walked East. Way, way toward the end of my walk. That's why, when I took this picture at the beginning of my walk, I had no idea that it was 650 West 173rd Street.

So then I went through this whole stupid sequence where I started looking for numbers and was baffled that they seemed to be going the wrong way (what th--?) and then cranky that they weren't doing it right and THEN, yes, my memory of street numbering returned and I called myself some bad names.

The last two shots were taken on my way back when I knew it was what I'd been looking for.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …….. click to enlarge




Mary Sargent © 2009 …….. click to enlarge

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Washington Heights, Fort Washington Avenue, looking South from 174th Street

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Okay! Photo problem solved. My new card reader works when nothng else does. Damn Dell, anyway.

So, as I was saying last night, yesterday I went on a photowalk to 173rd Street. Gladys, a homesick New Yorker, now living in Puerto Rico, has been patiently waiting for me to photograph her streets. She lived in two different buildings on 173rd Street and I was on a mission to document them. But first (there's always a but first), I got off the A train at 175th and walked down Fort Washington Avenue to 173rd Street and here I saw P.S. 173 which I had photographed almost a year ago in February from across the street. From this angle, it looks almost docile.

Also, look at that sun! This was at 4:20! Obama is president and the days are getting longer. At Last! (As they played at 10 consecutive inaugural balls)




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Midtown, Lexington Avenue at 45th Street

Today I went on a photowalk to 173rd Street in Washington Heights. It was cold. I was looking for two specific buildings as Gladys requested. I got em. Coming back, I missed the last step on the subway stairs and fell down with my camera still hanging around my neck. I heard it hit the concrete. But it's okay and I'm okay. I'm just telling you this because when you see that I'm posting a photo from two years ago, you'll know it wasn't my fault. I did my best, subjecting myself to frigid weather and injury.

But I can't download my photos. I have a card slot in my computer which won't read, and my camera connection is unacceptable also. This happened once before and in the morning it had fixed itself. So I hope an overnight rest will work the same magic this time. In the meantime . . .



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

On January 23, 2007, I was working on Park Avenue South and I took a lunchtime photowalk. Subway to Grand Central, then Lexington to 45th Street. I took this shot first merely to record the street sign, then later liked the group of six people all looking in different directions and cropped it way down. Now I like the full shot. What do you think?


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Lower East Side, Essex Street at Delancey

The Essex Street Market has a large number of merchants and is worth a long visit but it was closing, so I only got a few shots of some unusual things. I'll come back another time – earlier.


Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

See the goat meat in the middle? This is the first time I've ever seen it for sale. The question of how to cook it could not be answered in my cook book library, not even in How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. He can expect an indignant email from me.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Feet. Of some sort.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


Look at this! Have you ever seen chickens sold by breed? I have to come back.


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Lower East Side, Essex Street at Delancey

First posting under the Presidency of Barack Obama. Hallelujah! What a day. Is everyone happy? I sure hope so.

This posting, as usual, has nothing to do with the great events of today. This is the end of the walk Bill and I took two weeks ago when Bush was still President.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

After we left Starbucks, I realized we had to hurry in case Saxelby Cheesemongers closed early, so I didn't take any photos on the way. You may recall that I was on a mission to buy some yogurt purportedly even better than Kesso's. We walked three short blocks on Delancey to Essex Street and the Essex Street Market. Notice the subway globe right there on the street. It will be handy if this yogurt is really better than Kesso's.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


Saxelby Cheesemongers was right inside the door. There is Anne Saxelby herself behind the counter.

Okay, okay, I know you want a closeup of the cheese.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Note: the sheep milk yogurt from Three Corner Field Farm was very good, quite good, but I still prefer Kesso. But it's just a matter of personal preference, not qualilty.

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Lower East Side, Allen Street at Delancey

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Oh, blessed Starbucks! When one's fingers are numb from cold, the thought of a foamy hot latte is bliss indeed. I know I'm not supposed to think well of Starbucks but I give them THE credit for raising the level of coffee in NYC.

Coffee was atrocious in New York when I moved here in 1982. I soon started adding milk to my coffee for the first time in my life. It helped some. It was as if we were saying, give me your day-old coffee that tastes like dishwater, we can take it, we're New Yorkers, we're tough, none of that sissy, good coffee for us. Oh, it was grim.

Then Starbucks came along. The year was 1994. Surprised? I would've guessed more like 1988, but WikiAnswers says 1994 at Broadway and 87th Street. The coffee was good. Damn good. Pretty soon coffee got better other places. Take-out lunch places installed espresso machines. We could actually enjoy coffee instead of taking it like medicine.

But now you're saying, yeah, but why don't you go to the independent coffee shops where claims are made that the coffee is MUCH better than Starbucks. First let's acknowledge that they wouldn't even exist if Starbucks hadn't made it safe for them. Second, you must admit that an independent coffee shop is not always available when you want coffee.

And so, we stopped at this Starbucks, I with gratitude, Bill grumbling a bit. He held out and his reward was a free shot of espresso that the barrista had to get rid of.

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Lower East Side, Allen Street at Delancey

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This comfort station, so called, faces Delancey Street. The signs on the building read, "____________ is the Keeper of this Park" and "Allen Mall Six." This is a park? says I. And This is comfort?

I have discovered that the entire mall, so called, has been maintained by the Parks Department since 1929 "as the result of an agreement with the Manhattan Borough President." I wonder what the terms of that agreement were. Anyway, I guess if it's maintained by the Parks Department, it becomes a park.

Upon further investigation, however, I learned that things are looking up, and if I had only crossed Delancey, I would have seen a newly redone block of the Allen Mall with a brick path, benches, sculpture and shrubs. I'll save that for the spring. I learned this on the Lower East Side website.

Note: The malls are divided into eight sections and numbered. Hence Allen Mall Six.

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Lower East Side, Allen Street at Delancey

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Time for a truck shot. We haven't had one for a long time. Take note of the piece of building to the left above the green truck. Tomorrow night we'll see the front of it (it's on the median) and I will have some information about it. I hope.

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Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Rivington and Delancey Streets

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……… click to enlarge

See the black lettering on the green roof? It says: Coming Soon Tats Cru…


Watch this. I wouldn't put it here if it wasn't good. And click to enlarge.

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Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Rivington and Delancey Streets

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Across the street is Lucky Jack's, an old hole in the wall bar, been around since the 40's, but they recently had their sign redone. NO, I'm lying, it has actually been around only since 2004, and far from being a hole in the wall, it's a hole through the wall, a block long, with another entrance on Orchard Street. It has a long, long copper topped bar and it seems to be a mostly guy place with plenty of flat screened TVs. Here's a review.

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Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Rivington and Delancey Streets

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………. click to enlarge

Nice touch, that sign. It lets you know that inside that dingy, rundown building is a guy with a sense of style, precision, AND he's clean. If you're tuned in to the buzz of the world, you won't be surprised that Dickson Hairshop has something of a presence on the web. I, of course, was surprised.

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Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Rivington and Delancey Streets

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Can you guess what this is?

It's the Tian Tian laundromat, although on the web it's known as Tin Tin (same address). Go here for possibly the only ode ever written to a laundromat.

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Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Stanton and Rivington Streets

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………….……………….. click to enlarge


Here's one of the slick new spots I mentioned last night. How Sweet It Is, is a pretty little bakery which has so far inspired 19 lengthy mixed reviews on Yelp. People are passionate about their cupcakes. But many of them mentioned the steep prices.

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Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Stanton and Rivington Streets

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

You're right, this is just an ordinary street. When I'm on an old street and I see a big new hotel going up across the street, I feel like I need to photograph the ordinary old things that we won't remember when they're gone. I have to admit that, hidden in this shot, are some slick new spots that replaced, uh, what? Let them stay hidden!! Actually, I'll show you one later.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Across the street we have Tiengarden, a vegetarian restaurant with $8 entrees. And Bluestockings, a bookstore, café and activity center. Their calendar lists something every night. This is tomorrow night's event:

Monday, January 12th @ 7PM - FreeReading: Jaclyn Friedman & Jessica Valenti “Yes Means Yes”With Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Anastasia Higginbotham and Jill FilipovicA groundbreaking collection, “Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape” presents a third wave feminist perspective on
rape culture and female sexuality as seen through the lens of race, class and culture. Please join editors Jaclyn Friedman & Jessica Valenti (author of “Full Frontal Feminism” and “He’s A Stud, She’s A Slut”) and contributors in a discussion in a lively discussion which reinterprets the ‘no means no” axiom.

The next time I'm photographing Allen Street, say, 2019, I'll walk on the other side. Will it still be there?

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Lower East Side, Allen Street Betweeen East Houston and Stanton Streets

Mary Sargent © 2009 …… click to enlarge

Here, across the "Park Avenue-like median", is the Thompson Lower East Side hotel, opened for business last summer. Nice counterpoint to Oliva, just up the block and across the street (see last night's post).

Note: For some actual information about Lower East Side boundaries, see the first comment on last night's post.

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Lower East Side, Allen Street at East Houston Street

We got off at the 2nd Avenue stop on the F train, one stop before our destination, and walked down Allen Street to Delancey. Allen Street ends here at Houston – on the north side, it becomes First Avenue and you're in the East Village.

This is the only boundary of the Lower East Side that seems to be firm. Some sources say the eastern border is the East River, some Clinton or Pitt Street, the southern border could be Canal or Division or East Broadway, and the western, Allen Street (!), or Bowery or Forsyth. I'll just have to feel my way as I go. In any case, everyone can agree that Allen Street south of Houston, is in the Lower East Side.

Quoting from New York Song Lines:

In part to improve Allen Street's bad reputation (it was part of the Lower East Side's red-light district), the street was widened in 1932 and a median put in in an effort to create a Park Avenue-like effect. All the buildings on the east side of the street were demolished for this project. The street is just now beginning to recover from this ill-conceived plan.

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……..............................….. click to enlarge




Mary Sargent © 2009 ……….. click to enlarge

So here, two views of Oliva on the north-west corner of Allen and Houston with ladies in coats to match.

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Inwood, Just Off Broadway Between Isham and 212th Streets

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Bill was visiting until today; he was in town for a history conference over the weekend and then stayed on so we could have dinner with people and see a movie and go on a photowalk. Bill is my son. Tuesday was our photowalk; we went to the Lower East Side to find some yogurt at Saxelby Cheesemongers, claimed to be better than Kesso.

On our way to the A train, I took this shot of the latest wall painting.

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Chelsea, 23rd Street Between Eighth and Seventh Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……… click to enlarge

Here's my destination: Chelsea Clearview Cinemas. Again, I refer you to CinemaTreasures.org for a short history of this building. I was thrilled to discover that this was the site of the Squat Theater in the early 80's where I saw Pandora's Box (1929) with Louise Brooks. I had forgotten where the theater was. I remember reading about it in The Voice and rushing down to see it, as I was way into movies then, and being surprised to find the space a bit makeshift. It was the golden age of movies here in New York.

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……… click to enlarge

x

And here's the last photo of this walk, this irresistible building across the street from the theater. No history, just visuals.

Now for the truly interested, the first segment of Pandora's Box. The rest of them are on YouTube.

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Chelsea, 23rd Street Between Eighth and Ninth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

You won't believe how much time I've spent trying to figure out how to write what I feel about these buildings. I'm giving up. It's too late. For now, I'll just say I like them lots.

This is the end of the block at Ninth Avenue and at this point I decided to turn around and hurry back because I was COLD.

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Chelsea, 23rd Street Between Eighth and Ninth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……… click to enlarge

Go to the website for Modern 23 located in the same block as Visual Arts Theater and Psychic Reader and Adviser and ponder whether you want to live here, knowing that your kitchen would be in your living room just like when you lived in that funky studio in the East Village back in the day, and then think about what you would have to do to live here and whether it would involve a misdemeanor or a felony and then make your decision. Let us know ASAP!

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Chelsea, 23rd Street Between Eighth and Ninth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Unimpressed though I was with this clunky façade and its kindergarten style lettering, I took a shot and then looked it up on the internet. You must go to this website and read the comments. There are people who know everything about this theater, from its beginnings in 1963 as the RKO 23rd Street with a single screen, then to its being used for live theater by the Roundabout Theater in the 70's, then to being acquired by Cineplex Odeon and being triplexed, then to going back to 2 screens and becoming Chelsea West Cinema and now to being acquired by The School of Visual Arts and on its way to becoming a cultural center with state-of-the-art movie capabilities. There are personal memories and lamentings and lists of movies that played there and minute descriptions of lobbies and seats and tales of working for the Roundabout and not getting paid. Anything you'd ever want to know.

The link I gave you above is a page in the website Cinema Treasures and this is its description (from the website):

Launched in December 2000, Cinema Treasures is a groundbreaking website devoted to movie theater preservation and awareness. Utilizing the community-building capabilities of the Internet, Cinema Treasures unites movie theater owners and enthusiasts in a common cause—to save the last remaining movie palaces across the country.

Wouldn't that be nice? My pet theater is the former Metro Theater but it's too late now to get into that.

Note: Apparently Milton Glaser designed the façade. You know, the façade I'm so unimpressed with? Well, I don't care who designed it – I'm not backing down!

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Chelsea, 23rd Street Between Eighth and Ninth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Across the street from Duane Reade is this Psychic Shop. These shops never seem to have customers when I photograph them and yet somehow they're paying the rent. Someday soon I'll get my palm read and let you know if it's worth $10.

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Chelsea, 23rd Street Between Eighth and Ninth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This Duane Reade, unlike any other Duane Reade I've ever seen, gives me a calm, peaceful feeling. I would trust their pharmacist. It must be the arches.

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Chelsea, 23rd Street at Eighth Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Not too many of you were out today, were you? I know because I had a wonderfully pleasant ride down the West Side Highway in the bright afternoon sun. No traffic. The driver and I were in a good mood about that. Why I was taking a car service instead of the much more economical subway is because I was once again late. Since I lost my job, my habits have deteriorated to about adolescent level. Stay up late, sleep late, be late. Spend money foolishly. But in this case, it was all for you, dear readers. Yes, I needed to be there a little early so I could get in a photowalk, as resolved only last night.

It was nice to be out while the sun was still shining. This is the corner of 23rd and Eighth where the driver let me out. It looks like a small time city except for the Empire State Building in the distance. I walked across 23rd to Ninth Avenue and then quickly came back as it was damn cold.

OH. Yes, what I was late for was to meet Myra to see Doubt at the Chelsea Cinema on 23rd and Eighth Avenue. Good movie. Meryl Streep was phenomenal, worth seeing the movie just to watch her act. And Hoffman was great, as usual, but he didn't have as much acting to do. And the cinematography was great.

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Times Square, 41st Street at Seventh Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This shot was taken in Times Square on Christmas Day one year ago and it looks like Happy New Year to me.

If you were out in Times Square tonight, well, bless your freezing fingers and toes, and Happy New Year to you.

I stayed inside nice and warm, pondering my New Year's resolutions. Let's see . . . No. 1. Go on photowalk January 1.

There, that's enough.

Good night! Health, happiness and wealth to all in 2009!

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