East Village, Avenue C at 14th Street

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Standing on the eastern end of 14th Street at Avenue C, there's nowhere to go that makes sense but back where I came from.

Across the street is a view.of a corner of Stuyvesant Town, looking like any other housing project.  There are 35 of these buildings, containing 8,757 apartments, making this development much larger than an Illinois town I once lived in with a population of 7,000.  That was a grim two years of my life, and I imagine living here would be equally grim.  For me, anyway.  I know it has its fans.

Please enlarge the map below to get an idea of how truly huge it is. You have to click the View Larger Map link and then click the plus sign a few times.  I know it's a few steps more than you want to take, but believe me, it's worth it.


View Larger Map

East Village, Avenue C at 14th Street

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …..……………….. click to enlarge

My map shows 14th Street continuing to Avenue D and ending at the FDR Drive, so I was surprised to be stopped by the blue fence.  I learned from a guard who stopped me from photographing behind the blue fence, that it was closed off for security reasons after 9/11.

East Village, 14th Street Between Avenues B and C

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………..........………….. click to enlarge

I was taken by the rhythm of those cornices.




Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Here's the straight-on shot.

See map.

East Village, 14th Street Between Avenues B and C

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

This is a small piece of Stuyvesant Town, much in the news lately.

East Village, 14th Street Between Avenues A and B

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …….............…………….. click to enlarge

And sometimes it takes two people wearing turquoise shirts to make the picture.

East Village, 14th Street Between Avenues A and B

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ……...................…………….. click to enlarge

I didn't know until tonight that these two stores plus the three adjoining were destroyed by a fire in May.  It seems someone was installing a fire door (see the irony?) when his welding torch "apparently set some grease on fire."  And now the neighbors lament the loss of the only good pizza in the East Village.

East Village, 14th Street at Avenue A

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Sometimes you just don't want people in a shot.

Back from Maine, and, you will not be surprised to hear, it was beautiful, the weather was blissful and the lobster was plentiful, cheap and good.  We had boiled lobster, lobster salad, lobster rolls, lobster in a seafood pot pie, and lobster omelet.  The last night, I had a steak and red wine.  It was strangely satisfying.

East Village, 14th Street Between First Avenue and Avenue A

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LAST POST UNTIL NEXT TUESDAY. IT'S VACATION TIME! MAINE AND LOBSTERS! 

Use your time well.  Maybe browse the archives.


Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …………........……….. click to enlarge

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East Village, 14th Street Between First Avenue and Avenue A

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …………….........…….. click to enlarge

A Hallmark card for you.

East Village, 14th Street Between First Avenue and Avenue A

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

I apologize for the erratic postings lately.  As soon as my life gets less erratic, so will my postings.  Rest assured, this Project will be done (if I live long enough), and some day, maybe soon, I will get to that block you've been waiting for.

Meanwhile, the Peter Stuyvesant Post Office is apparently badly run, if one can believe two complaints posted at Complaint.com.  This is a fairly strange website, as it seems posting a complaint has no more effect than if you'd written it in your diary.  Anyone up for submitting a complaint about Complaint.com?

East Village, 14th Street Between First Avenue and Avenue A

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………...........… ………………….. click to enlarge

This church began life in 1896 as Grace Chapel and Hospital, an Episcopal mission for Grace Church in the West Village.  In 1943,it became the Immaculate Conception Church, a Catholic church.  Do you know what Immaculate Conception refers to?  Wrong!  It's not the Virgin birth.  It's that Mary was born without original sin.  If anyone desires to see a baptism in this very church, you can find one right here.

East Village, 14th Street Between First Avenue and Avenue A

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …….........…………….. click to enlarge

East Village, 14th Street at First Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Sunday evening, I went downtown to East 14th Street to the Booker Prize Book Club where we were discussing The White Hotel, a most demanding book.  But good.  Afterwards, I walked 14th Street to the river, or so I thought.  I was looking at an old map.  Since my map was made in the 80's, 14th Street from Avenue C to D has been demapped.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  This is the corner of 14th Street and First Avenue.

The East Village is on the south side of 14th Street and Stuyvesant Town is on the north side.  We'll be looking mostly at the south side.

I started at about 7:15 on a pleasant summer evening.

Flatiron District, 22nd Street Between Fifth And Sixth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …..……………….. click to enlarge

Back to Allegretti.  Yvette had survived and we proceeded to have an impressive dinner.  In fact, this was probably the best Restaurant Week meal I had, in that there were no weak links.  Asia de Cuba had a possibly more delicious entree and dessert, but the appetizer was not much good.  This is what I had at Allegretti:  We shared an extra appetizer of grilled octopus with some kind of delicious rice combination, umm good.  Tuna tartar, 3 mounds on cucumber slices with something crispy, ummm, good.  Risotto with crab and asparagus.  After I finished, I realized I hadn't tasted much crab, but it was delicious all the same.  Black cherry clafouti,  ummm good.  The food deserved a better room; it was a rectangle with small square tables scattered around.  They serve the same prix fixe year round for $39.  Or does it change daily, as website says?

Flatiron District, 22nd Street at Sixth Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….… .................................…………….. click to enlarge

The sign says only "Pizza".  No name. I was hardly paying attention to it.  However, I was checking Songlines just to see what was on this block and discovered it's called Maffei Pizza and that the Village Voice called it a "culinary nirvana."  Take a look at its web presence.  You just never know.

Okay, so now I've come to the end of the block and I must run back to Allegretti before Yvette starts gnawing her knuckles.

Flatiron District, 22nd Street Between Fifth And Sixth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …….............…………….. click to enlarge

There at the red awning is Allegretti, where I'm to meet Yvette for our Restaurant Week dinner.  I've already received a text from her saying, hurry up, I'm starving, I've been here since 6 (it's going on 7), but she's going to have to wait a few minutes longer while I photograph the rest of this street.  I'm not late yet, after all.

Flatiron District, 22nd Street Between Fifth And Sixth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Right now, this is my favorite building in the city.  I spent a lot of time with it today, looking at it, wondering about it.  There was not much to discover about it on the web, just that it was built in 1904 and is residential.  Don't you wonder what the apartments look like?  One to a floor, two?  Isn't that a remarkable entrance for such a narrow building?  They've screwed around with it and someone really made a wrong move painting the columns halfway up, but it's still pretty impressive. 

I didn't notice the ground floor restaurant when I shot it and I can't find out its current name, but whatever it is, I need to try it.  And take a closer look at the building.  And try to meet someone who lives there and make friends with them.  And then visit them.

Flatiron District, Fifth Avenue Between 23rd and 22nd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………..… ………………….. click to enlarge

It wasn't until I turned around and saw this doorway that I realized I was standing by the great Flatiron Building, seen here on March 17, 2009.

New York City Landmarks describes the building as "clad in traditional Italian Renaissance ornament, most of it white terra cotta."

Flatiron District, Fifth Avenue Between 23rd and 22nd Streets

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….…………… …...................……………….. click to enlarge

Tonight I offer you a whole block in one photograph, distorted though it is.  I like seeing it as a unit.

This was shot last Tuesday as I was on my way to meet Yvette at Allegretti for a Restaurant Week dinner.  As many of you know, Restaurant Week began in 1992 during the Democratic National Convention and was so successful that it has continued ever since, expanding and adding.  Today I heard Restaurant Week has been extended through Labor Day, thus making its name irrelevant or maybe just plain wrong.  But we should stick with it anyway, since Restaurant Summer just doesn't work.

Chelsea, 19th Street at Seventh Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….………………….. click to enlarge

Finally we come to the end of the block.  Tomorrow begins a new one-block walk.  Some day this heat wave will end and it will once again be pleasant to spend time outdoors.  Until then, it's one block at a time.