Lower East Side, Allen Street at Broome

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

For the last shot of this one-block photowalk, I give you Composition in Beige and Green.

Tomorrow, a two-block photowalk.

Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Broome and Delancey

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

So this is the renovation that demonstrates "what could and might be done in the future with the Allen and Pike Street Malls."  I must say, I'm underwhelmed.  After pondering this for a while, I realized it is the walkway that's the problem.  It's not integrated into the natural setting.  It looks like a strip of linoleum laid down on top of an asphalt walkway.  Do you agree?

Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Delancey and Broome

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

You may remember the plan was to go to the Tenement Museum and take a tour, but the plan fell through.  However, here right on Allen Street is a glimpse of the rear yard reconstruction of the tenement at 97 Orchard Street.  Below is a view of the rear yard.

This building was a great find for the organizers of this museum because it had been boarded up for 50 years.  The landlord couldn't or wouldn't pay for the mandated upgrades to the building, so he evicted the tenants and closed off the upper floors, using only the street level commercial space. 



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

It wasn't until 1895 that running water was provided to the building; before that, tenants come to the rear yard to get their water and to use the privies, shown here at the left.  There were four stalls serving the entire building and the patrons of the bar downstairs.

Lower East Side, Allen Street Between Delancey and Broome

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

Last I heard, Chinatown ended at Grand Street, but it's looking mighty like Chinatown around the corner from Delancey.  I did find one acknowledgment of this in a real estate site, NYBits, and I quote:  Unlike neighboring Little Italy, Chinatown is continually expanding. The border between the two has all but disappeared and Chinatown now stretches from City Hall to Grand Street (by some accounts even further, to Delancey St).

I'm sure you remember that when I was last on the Lower East Side in January 2009, I was looking forward to visiting this block in the Spring.  It took a little longer than that, but no matter.  I had read about the redesign of the center mall.  We'll see it close up in a few days.

See map.

 

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.

See map.

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.

See map.

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.

See map.

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.

See map.

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.

See map.

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.

See map.

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.

See map.

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.

See map.

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?

See map.

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.

See map.

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.

See map.