Roof Shot

From my building looking south. Those cranes left of center mark Ground Zero.

Brooklyn Bridge 1933

November 28, 1933. "New York City views. Looking down South Street." 5x7 safety negative by Samuel H. Gottscho. From Shorpy. Left to right: behind Brooklyn Bridge.

1. City Bank Farmers Trust Building (20 Exchange Place). Later known as the First National City Bank Building. Today: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

2. 60 Wall Tower (70 Pine Street), aka the Cities Service Building. Today: American International Building. The notorious AIG!

3. Bank of Manhattan (40 Wall Street). Today: Trump Building.

Times Square 1943

February 1943. "New York. Camel cigarette advertisement at Times Square." Photograph by John Vachon for the Office of War Information. Chin's Dine Dance. Hotel Lenox. Woolworths. Hotel Claridge. Arrow Shirts. Gelworth's Women's Wear. From the fabulous Shorpy.com. Have a great weekend....

The Perfect Bowery Couple

The wealthy unisex model staying at an upscale Bowery hotel, and the exhausted worker who just cleaned his room. A match made in Bloom-berg!

Times Square RIP

Now that Times Square is officially dead ("Bloomberg sanitized"), here's looking at you kid. From the fine folks at LIFE.

Times Square, Then & Now

Much has been made of the "new Times Square," where you can grab a lawn chair and watch the neon go by. When I think of Times Square I think The Sweet Smell of Success, James Dean, Midnight Cowboy, Howard Johnsons and the nearby Broadway theaters, those iconic things that make New York extraordinary and frankly, different from anywhere USA. But the new lawn chair esthetic does away with New York grit, with the throb of urban activity that helps mark our great City. So which do you like better, the amazing circa 1950 LIFE magazine photo above (Shorpy.com) , or the lawn chair experience depicted below?

From Chris Flash: "For better or worse, the old Times Square represented genuine indigenous New York culture created and run by New Yorkers for New Yorkers. Tourists and visitors came to NYC just for that reason: to experience the REAL New York City, the best and the worst of it. Not the corporate homogenized shell that has been created by non-New Yorkers for other non-New Yorkers."

The High Line opens

The High Line, the once abandoned elevated freight railway that winds its way from 14th street to 34th on the west side, has opened to the public. I have yet to visit, but will probably do so this week. Meanwhile, check my blog Walking the High Line, for a view from last year when I illegally crawled up on the glorious span.

under a blood red sky

And it's not Greenwich Village, obviously... summertime, USA

Bowery Faces & Facades

The Bowery was once skid row and home to the City's pizza oven retailers (really!). Now it's a tony, upscale stretch for hipsters and the art crowd. But in between the blue glass and perfume, a few old faces remain.  Like our friend above..       

Lovely detail on a threatened building 

"Auctioneers and Appraisers" Of What? 

The "EL" of an old flophouse hotel sign, now covered in steel and blue glass....

Condo Church

This 19th century church on West 4th at 6th Avenue was converted to condos. And you can't even tell

Brooklyn Navy Yard return

Good Signs

Venerable Block Drugs, East Village

Ear Inn, West Village

End of the World.....

McGoverns Bar, West Village

Elevated on 15th Street

Vestige of Olde New Yawk extending from the Chelsea Market building near the Hudson.

Pickers in the Park

The Flamenco Machine is one of many musicians, buskers and the like in the park who entertain. These guys are brilliant! 

Time to Eat

Draggin the Line

125th Street Train trestle, Harlem

Lovers in the Night

Admiral's Row nears the Lot

Admiral's Row, the historic Civil War era Brooklyn buildings that have been left to gently rot into ruin, are about to be turned into a parking lot. Thanks to Melanie for the tip: Gothamist reported today that two buildings are to be saved with the remaining demolished to make way for a badly needed grocery store/parking lot for this lower income neighborhood. I am just thankful that the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation appears to be preserving two of the houses, if they're good to their word. From Gothamist:

The Municipal Art Society attended a meeting today at which the negotiations between the National Guard, the owner of the property, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) discussed the future of the buildings at Admiral's Row. The meeting was part of the federally-mandated Section 106 process that requires federal agencies to study the impact of their actions on important historic buildings. Sadly, it seems their minds were made up, the Brooklyn Paper reports that they will save two of the historic buildings in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and destroy the others, making way for a supermarket.

This deal would not guarantee that the buildings (the Timber Shed and building B) would be preserved, rather, ownership would be transferred to the city, who would then "solicit bids from developers to build a supermarket and an industrial building as well as to 'test the market' to rehabilitate and maintain the two crumbling 19th-century structures."

While the city is smiling upon this agreement, MAS (who had their own plans proposed) and other preservationists are not. The former just released the following statement: “MAS appreciates the National Guard’s focus on this issue and the rigorous review it is conducting as part of the Section 106 process. We will continue to work with them to address issues that they have articulated in our effort to preserve more of the buildings. The Brooklyn Navy Yard is seeking to demolish the buildings to create a very large surface parking and we strongly believe that more of the historic buildings could be preserved by reconfiguring their plan.”

Drag me to Hell

These ads are all over town. Am I the only one bothered by the graphic imagery and menace portrayed here? Like the Louvin Brothers sang, "Satan is real."

Old Tribeca Pt. 2

Sonn Bros Company Whiskies, Washington Street

Birnbach Radio, GE, Littlefuse

Old dormer windows on West Side Highway