The membership arrived at the NJ State Firemen’s Home to find the home decorated for the upcoming Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays. It seemed like yesterday we were up here for the Summer Barbecues.
The outside grounds of the NJ State Firemen’s Home
We had a lot to talk about at our October meeting with the Annual Convention behind us. There had been discussions on the Home and its expansion, renovations going on and the upcoming holiday season. I thought it was one of the best meetings we had in a long time.
The outside of the home decorated for the upcoming holiday season
Our fundraising has been coming along really well and we have exceeded our drive from last year. I think the word getting out about what we do and the Social media has been a huge help. We not only want to show our fellow fire companies where their money is being spent but how it is being spent.
We discussed also our upcoming reorganization breakfast at the Wyckoff Fire Department in November and the Annual Christmas party in December. Our Secretary, Tom Simpson discussed the gift this year and a planned lunch for both the staff and the membership. Everything is underway and planned for a great holiday season.
After the meeting was over, we joined the residents in the main meeting room where refreshments were being served and the entertainment had started.
Gigi entertained the residents on a stage decorated for the upcoming Halloween season
Gigi performed a series of Classic rock and Country music
Gigi performing the Patsy Kline hit “Crazy for you”
After ending her performance with ‘God Bless America’, we got up and introduced ourselves to the residents. We let everyone know about our upcoming Christmas party, which is always a huge hit with the residents and staff alike. We also we wished them well and for their years of service to the fire service, which they seemed touched by. Then we took our group picture.
The members of the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association
We ended the program with one of the employees of the home, Eleanor, singing with Gigi a heartfelt song., “I Believe”.
What I thought was interesting was one of the guys told me she had once been a backup singer to Michael Jackson. I thought that was really gift that this woman shared her voice and love for these guys.
It really was a wonderful afternoon and I want to thank everyone who made it possible. This is our gift to our fellow firefighters.
The front of Centro Pizzeria & Restaurant at 1469 Second Avenue
The pizza selection
Sometimes you come across a restaurant that you must have walked by a million times but never stopped in, the was Centro Pizza. Until one night when I was starved and it was the only place open. I saw the selection of pizzas in the window and had to stop. I am glad I did. The food here is excellent and very reasonable.
The pizza selection
My dinner that evening, a large cheese and pepperoni pizza with the Coke.
My dinner my first evening at Centro Pizzeria
The pizza here is amazing. The sauce has so much flavor and they load the pepperoni on the slices. You got a real good mouthful on these oversized slices.
The Cheese pizza
The Pepperoni pizza is loaded with pepperoni
What a great dinner
The next time are here, I was in the mood for one of their rolls and ordered the Pepperoni Roll. These are also oversized and they pack the filling inside.
My dinner that night
I have to tell you that for $8.00, it was like a mini pizza. The Pepperoni Roll was loaded with spicy pepperoni and mozzarella and baked to perfection.
The Pepperoni Roll with their homemade red sauce
The red sauce they serve on the side is perfectly spiced and has a rich flavor.
The roll was loaded with thin slices of pepperoni
It was delicious and I enjoyed my late dinner
The inside of the restaurant with its nice selection of sodas and drinks
I could not believe how fast the Summer came and went. It was like a blink of the eye. I had covered a lot of ground over the last three months that included many neighborhoods in New York City, many Upstate New York and New Jersey towns plus updating older blogs that needed some work. They needed new pictures and updates in the businesses I had featured in the past. A lot has changed since COVID.
I started Alphabet City just before the Labor Day Weekend and a lot has changed here since the 1960’s and 70’s. The whole hippie movement is now over only to be replaced by the current hipster movement where men are wearing knit head coverings in almost 90 degree and still wearing ‘man buns’ that are ‘so 2010’. To each his own.
Looking down Avenue C on a sunny afternoon
I just ignored everyone and started my walk on the Avenue’s of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is broken up that the closer you are to public housing the less gentrified it was on the block. The border seemed to be around 10th Street. The lower the street, the nicer the bars and restaurants.
The one thing I did notice about the neighborhood was the amount of community gardens that popped up in corners all around the blocks. This was the result of the community efforts in the 1970’s and 80’s that saved the neighborhood and what has made the neighborhood as desirable as it is now. It seems you can’t stop gentrification. Even so, these hard working gardeners are setting the tone for the neighborhood.
The signs of the times on top of the old tenements on Avenue C
The other thing I noticed about Alphabet City are the tagging and outdoor murals that line all the blocks. The people who creat this street art are so clever and creative. They really have an eye on color and design.
Some of the art cleverly tucked along the walls and columns in the neighborhood
Some of the art close by
I liked this design
The first of the Community Gardens that J toured that afternoon (they all seemed to be open the Saturday that I visited) was the Francisco ‘Pancho’ Ramos Community Garden at 709 East 9th Street. The garden showed the creative spirit of the people who volunteered there.
The sign for the Francisco “Pancho” Ramos Community Garden at 703 East 9th Street
(The History of the Park from its website)
The Lower East Side of the 1970s was a hard place with little green. Local residents noticed the abandoned, littered lot at the corner of Ninth Street and Avenue C and began to sow seeds and plants along the chain link and among the debris, and so the Ninth Street Community Garden & Park was founded in 1979. Today Pancho’s Garden hosts community events including music, art, and gardening workshops.
The pathways were lined with flower beds and some with vegetable gardens with the latest crops coming in. Here and there were pieces of artwork such as sculptures and paintings.
Walking through the gardens at the end of the summer
Following the paths
Walking through the flowering arbors
Some of the creative artwork that lined the paths
The raised flower beds
Some of the creative touches of the gardens
The Vegetable Gardens in full growth
Even the shed and play areas were colorful
This is what the community spirit of hard work and dedication can create in a neighborhood
Another interesting mural that I came across on the walls of the buildings
Just a reminder that the Alphabet City name is not a negative one anymore
The Alphabet Wine Company at 100 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C)
Walking through Alphabet City today reminded me of years ago when I toured Bushwick in Brooklyn. The negative connotation of the name was now synonymous with ‘hipster’ cool. When I started to see signs like Alphabet Wine Company, you know times have changed for a neighborhood with not such a great past.
Passing the Lower East Side II still reminds you that public housing is a big part of this neighborhood
The next set of street art I admired was 15C Cultural Center building at 68 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C). The shop was closed that afternoon so I got to see all the interesting art work on the metal gates.
This was on one side of building of the 5C Cultural Center at 68 Avenue C and 5th Street
Danielle Mastrion is a Brooklyn-born, New York City based painter and muralist who specializes in large scale, brightly colored murals. She holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design (Artist website)
This mural was around the corner dedicated to Puerto Rico
The changes to Avenue C start around East 10th Street as you leave the area around the public housing and walk closer to the areas that cater to a younger NYU/Pace student population. When I visited the neighborhood originally walking the borders of the neighborhood and even this evening, the bars and restaurants exploded with students whose first weekend in New York City was filled with excitement.
They chatted on their cellphones and yelled to their friends and acted like a scene in early ‘Sex and the City’ episodes. I can always tell when an out of towner is trying too hard.
The rebuilt section of Avenue C
I walked through my next community garden, Gustavd Hartman Square. Some of these patches of green were really small and just required a peek inside.
This plot of land, located at Second Street and Avenue C, is named for Gustave Hartman, a municipal court judge and philanthropist who spent most of his life in this neighborhood. Gustave Hartman was born in Hungary and immigrated to the United States with his parents while still a young boy. He attended P.S. 22 on Sheriff Street (now Columbia Street), the College of the City of New York, and received his law degree from New York University in 1905.
This plot of land, located at Second Street and Avenue C, is named for Gustave Hartman, a municipal court judge and philanthropist who spent most of his life in this neighborhood.
The growth of the garden needed a little pruning
I then started my walk back up Avenue C from the border of East Houston Street, which itself on all sides of the street has been knocked down and rebuilt. I have never seen a street go from shabby to chic more in the last fifteen to twenty years. Here the upper parts of the old Chinatown and Little Italy and the Lower East Side have merged with the Village. The lines have been blurred.
The changes to Avenue C start in the lower part of the neighborhood
The next set of public housing is the Bracetti Plaza
The next community garden I visited was the Secret Garden, a tiny park at 293 East Forth Street. Volunteers were hard at work weeding and planting while I walked around
Charlie Doves is a graffiti and fine artist from New York City’s Lower East Side, known for his work inspired by graffiti’s Golden Age and Japanese art. A master of his craft, Doves has moved from street art to fine art, fusing different techniques and styles to create a timeless body of work (Arts AI).
The Secret Garden Community Garden at 293 East Fourth Street
Alfredo Bennett, professionally known as The Royal “Kingbee” is a NYC artist. He was born in Harlem and raised in The Bronx in the early 70’s. He began his career painting graffiti on walls until gathering recognition and eventually being commissioned to perform his artistic abilities all throughout the city of New York. The artist went to JF Kennedy High School in the Bronx (BX 200 Artist.com).
The art was not just limited to the murals that looked more professionally done. The taggers showed their creativity on the closed gates of the businesses and the walls of the buildings around the Avenue.
Tagging art on Avenue C
Tagging art on Avenue C
The next community gardens I visited and one of the original is the Carmen Pabon Del Amanecer Jardin, dedicated to Carmen Pabon.
The sign for the Carmen Pabon Del Amanecer Jardin at
Carmen Pabón, ‘la madrina del Lower East Side,’ was a Puerto Rican community activist, gardener, poet and actress who founded a community garden as an urban sanctuary for children, local artists, Nuyorican poets and the elderly. Carmen helped thousands to create a better life for themselves and fed multitudes of Lower East Siders experiencing homelessness.
While a lot of the neighborhood is low rise and tenement housing, I stopped to admire this unique brick building at 116 Avenue C, with its interesting faces on all levels staring back at you. It reminded me of the many buildings I had passed recently in Lower Chelsea.
Each window had a demonist look in its eyes as you passed it. This building was built in 1900 (Streeteasy.com).
These menacing demons stare back at you from every window
I spent some more time cross crossing through more gardens admiring the work of dedicated gardens. The next I visited was the Flower Door Garden at 135 Avenue C.
La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez Community Garden was founded in 1976 by local residents and greening activists who took over what was then a series of vacant city lots piled high with rubble and trash. In an effort to improve the neighborhood during a downward trend of arson, drugs, and abandonment common in that era, members of the Latino group CHARAS cleared out truckloads of refuse.
Working with Buckminster Fuller, they built a geodesic dome in the open “plaza” and began staging cultural events. Green Guerillas pioneer Liz Christy seeded the turf with “seed bombs” and planted towering weeping willows and linden trees. Artist Gordon Matta-Clark helped construct La Plaza’s amphitheater using railroad ties and materials reclaimed from abandoned buildings.
What I liked about this particular garden was all the interesting metal work along the fencing. It popped all around the fencing like you were living in ‘Whoville’.
One of the entrances of the gardens
Walking around the inside along the paths
The whimsical ironworks on the top of the fencing
As I made my way back up Avenue C, J came across a small museum that I had never heard of before, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space at 155 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C).
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space at 155 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C)
The museum is a time capsule of information from the late 1960’s through the 70’s when the neighborhood had really hit rock bottom with the City’s almost bankruptcy. The neighborhood and its residents banded together to save the neighborhood and clean up all these empty lots of garbage and debris.
The entrance of the museum
The description of the museum’s purpose
The museum has pictures of the neighborhood at various stages of its development. There are the ups and downs of this section of the City and how its residents maintain it. The neighborhood has seen so much change and much of it due to the volunteers who keep improving it.
The inside of the museum
How the changes took place in Alphabet City
The masks and decorations that line the walls
The history of the neighborhood and its triumphs
After my trip through the museum, I continued the walk up Avenue C. Above 10th Street is was a little patchy but you can tell the neighborhood is getting better. I never felt unsafe walking around the ‘Alphabets’.
For the rest of my walk, I enjoyed the ‘open-air’ museum that the sides of the buildings offered me. There were many interesting murals to admire.
I think this one was in honor of the island of Puerto Rico.
Artist Antonio “Chico” Garcia is a New York City based Graffiti artist. He is well known in the neighborhood and has been featured in several periodicals (Wiki).
I saw this on the side of a Chinese restaurant
Then when I got to the top East 14th Street and I came across this mural on the side of a school PS 34 on East 12th Street and I admired the different styles of art in each panel.
The panel that lined the school created by artists from the Thrive Collective
Danielle Mastrion is a Brooklyn-born, New York City based painter and muralist who specializes in large scale, brightly colored murals. She holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design (Artist website)
I loved this whimsical school painting by artists Savannah Zambrano and Andrea Amanda
Savannah Zambrano is a freelance sequential artist that hosts workshops and panels, does face painting and caricatures, and works with Traditional and Digital Media (Artist Bio website).
The artists sign with the Thrive Collective
I loved this mural with the Puerto Rican flag by artist Miki Mu
Michela Muserra is an international muralist and illustrator based in Brooklyn. A graduate of Accademia di Bella Arti in her hometown of Foggia, Italy. The artist has worked as a teaching artist with Thrive Collective since January 2017 (Thrive Collective website).
I love this colorful display of positive behavior of Frank Ape by artist Brandon Sines
Artist Brandon Sines was exposed to many cultures while growing up simultaneously in New York City, Toronto, and Los Angeles. He mixes Pop Art’s mass culture, Surrealism’s private associations, and inventive paint handling to create dreamlike environments. His mark making ranges from experimental techniques to illustrative precision. Parts of the paintings are crystal clear, and other parts reach abstraction.
This was another great mural on the school but I could not find the artist
The piece of art that I noticed was as I was walking down East 14th Street and I came across this taggers work. To me it looked like a surreal ghost.
The piece of street art was East 14th Street
I turned the corner to Avenue B and started my journey down the street. Being closer to the colleges and further from the projects and around Tompkins Square Park, the vibe is different on Avenue B. The restaurants are a bit more expensive and there are more bars.
Walking down Avenue B
Walking through the neighborhood that offers so much to a visitor
I saw this ‘Love’ mural on one of the businesses
On the corner of Avenue B and East 13th Street I saw all this great street art on top of murals
As I continued the walk through this part of the neighborhood, I came across another series of community gardens that dot the street.
The Relaxation Garden was the first of the gardens I passed and this really had nothing to it. It looked like a garden waiting for something to happen to it.
The inside of the Relaxation Garden needs some TLC
I stared up at one of the buildings on Avenue B and this face from above was staring back at me. I thought this was really interesting but do not want to know how this artist did this without falling off the roof.
I thought this face staring back was really cool but I do not want to know how the tagger did this.
While I was walking, I stopped at the various restaurants and bars to look at their menus. I have to admit, they are not cheap. For a neighborhood known for poverty in its pockets, the places are pricy.
Passing the outdoor cafes on Avenue B
I then passed one of the community centers in the neighborhood and came across this series of panels. These were very retro 1970’s.
Panel One ‘Resist’
Panel Two ‘People Power’
Panel Three ‘Educate’
I thought they were profound and reminded me of works from the 1970’s.
Avenue B like Avenue C has its share of landscapers and gardeners and you see this in the creativity of the small community gardens.
The first one I walked through and admired was in front of the Trinity Lower East Side Church at 602 East 9th Street on the corner of Avenue B.
The Trinity Church Lower East Side at 602 East 9th Street
In 1839 German Saxon immigrants began to meet for worship in the home of a baker. By 1843 they were sufficiently strong to incorporate The Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession in the City of New York, since changed to Trinity Lower East Side Parish. In 1850, the congregation built a new church with four apartments below and a one-room school in the back. The present church was designed by Robert Litchfield and built in 1993. Dedicated on July 9, 1996, the facility includes a 100-seat chapel, community center and parsonage (Trinity Church website).
The gardens in front of the old church were a bit over grown but very colorful.
The fenced in garden in full bloom at the height of the summer
The one thing I like about this garden is how tranquil it was that day. Services were over so the church was quiet. It is the perfect place to just sit and think and relax.
Avenue B lines the eastern side of Tompkins Square Park and the park was alive with joggers, musicians, dog walkers and groups of college students stretching across the lawns talking, reading and sunning themselves. This is a far cry from the homeless camps of the early 1980’s.
Tompkins Square Park was extremely busy that afternoon
It’s fun to just walk through the borders of the park and see the neighborhood just conversing with each other. Community is not dead in New York City. Someone had tagged over this mural but I still thought it was interesting. The colors really stood out in the mural,
Romero, is a Korean and Spanish, first-generation American artist, and muralist . She is a New York City based artist. Her art is a contemporary representation, inspired by her mixed cultural background and layered complexities of the human experience. Her work is inspired by human emotion, identity, women’s empowerment, and New York City (Artist bio from website),
YouTube video on Artist Bianca Romero
Some of the community gardens are more creative than others. The next one I visited was the East 6th Street and Avenue B Garden at 84 Avenue B
The East 6th Street and Avenue Garden at 84 Avenue B
All the community gardens seemed to be open the weekend of my walk so I got to see all the gardeners at work. People were digging, pruning and cutting shrubs and trees and cleaning the beds of weeds and then composting.
History of the Garden:
(from the garden website
Throughout 1983 and 1984, garden members surveyed the site, drew up the plans for its optimal use, built over 100 4’ x 8’ plots and a large communal plot (“the Circle”), laid pathways, prepared for the installation of a fence, and laid out ornamental borders. In April of 1984, Green Thumb issued a one-year lease. Garden members were busy planting ornamental shrubs and trees. The Garden received important early technical assistance from the Citizens’ Committee, Green Guerrillas and the Trust for Public Land .
The welcoming French at the entrance of the Sixth Street and Avenue B Gardens
This was one of the larger community gardens and it was fun to stroll down the paths of flowers and vegetables and watch everyone hard at work.
The inside of the entrance of the gardens
Walking along the paths
The Vegetable gardens
The gardens at the height of the summer
The pathways in the gardens
The sitting area in the middle of the garden
The Weed Library and composting area
The tree has been part of this garden for years
I loved the ironwork along the fencing of the garden as I walked up Avenue B
The neighborhood reaction to a empty storefront in a gentrifying neighborhood
The garden was established in 1993/1994 soon after a building there was demolished. The building’s address was 194 Ave B which is also the garden’s address, but the garden’s entrance is at 546 E 12th St (NYC Parks/GreenThumb will eventually replace the garden sign. Down to Earth Garden, which changed its name on July 1, 2020 from Children’s Garden, is a Green Thumb community garden in the East Village/Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC.
We’re a small community garden, 1261 sq ft, on 12th St, by Ave B, southwest corner. However, we have been very active in composting (in combination with El Sol Brillante’s composting activities) since the fall of 2009
The flowering beds of the garden
The side beds
The artwork against the building was covered with vines and new growth
There was one last garden I visited but is was closing for the evening and that was the Vamps A Sembrar at 198 Avenue B.
The small Vegetable beds and visible art in the garden
The History of the garden:
(from the garden website)
The garden used to be two separate GreenThumb community gardens (Vamos A Sembrar and 200 Ave B Association Garden) until 2019, when they were combined as Vamos A Sembrar under the guidance of GreenThumb
This community garden had just closed for the afternoon so I could only see if from the fence. I could see the beds of vegetables growing. I really admired the artwork on the walls of the building. I will be returning on a future weekend to really explore all of these gardens, which I find are open on the weekends for the members and outside people.
I passed Pop’s Pizzeria at 223 Avenue B that I had eaten at when I walked the borders of the neighborhood. I had gotten at the restaurant late at night so I had not noticed the outside of the restaurant that evening.
When you look up above the restaurant, you see this Skelton painting smiling above the entrance.
The Skelton face that I did not see before when dining here on my last trip to the neighborhood
I finished for the evening around 5:00pm and went to get some dinner.
I checked Google and Avenue D Pizzeria which I had passed when walking down Avenue D was still open. So I walked down one of the side streets to give it a try.
The pizza selection was really good that night and the slices were reasonable at $1.50 for a Cheese slice and $2.50 for a Sausage slice.
The pizza selection that night
The hot food selection is $10.00 for a plate
The pizzeria also has a selection of hot entrees and sides at a reasonable price as well. There is no place to sit down anywhere near the pizzeria so I went back to Tompkins Square Park to eat my dinner. I found an empty bench and ate by one of the gardens.
My dinner that night in the park
I have to say that I was really impressed by the pizza for having to walk for blocks to eat it. The sauce was spiced so nicely and they loaded the sausage on the other slice.
After dinner I walked through the park and watched the bars and restaurants come to life. Most get a younger crowd of college students but there are a lot of family restaurants as well. I was amazed at the amount of kids who were dining with their parents that evening.
Admiring street art on the border of Alphabet City (I could not find the artist)
Since it was such a great night that I decided to walk around both Little Italy and Chinatown since they both border Alphabet City.
Walking around Little Italy on a warm late summer night
Outside the Cannoli King dessert shop a guy was singing Sinatra songs. I stopped to listen and this guy was really good. Everyone in the crowd was filming him.
Singing outside the Cannoli King at 152 Mulberry Street
It was fun to stand there and just enjoy the concert. The singer was wonderful!
The singer was great
Afree the mini concert was over, I continued my walk down Mulberry Street into Chinatown. Once upon a time there were distinct boundaries of Chinatown and Little Italy but they have become very blurred over the last twenty five years with gentrification affecting both neighborhoods.
I walked down Mott Street to Catherine Street and stopped at my favorite bakery that I know is always open late, Great Taste Bakery at 35 Catherine Street. I love the reasonable pastries and buns here and it is one of the last of the Chinatown bakeries that is still open late. This is also one of the few neighborhood bakeries left in a very gentrifying Chinatown. I come here after meals or just having dumplings up the road and finish here for dessert.
I love their Pineapple cream buns with some lemon tea at Great Taste Bakery
Since there was no place to sit down in here too I ate at one of the benches outside near the local park.
These buns are so good!
After all the walking that evening, you would figure I would be tired. There was something about the Lemon tea and the sweet bun that gave me a second wind and I walked from Chinatown to the Port Authority. It was such a beautiful warm night I figured ‘why not’? It was a beautiful walk up Broadway.
Admiring one of the old churches on lower Broadway on my long walk up Broadway to the Port Authority
Looking at Madison Square Park at night
It really ended up being a beautiful evening ing the City. For all its problems, the City really is magical at all times of the day. You just have to look at all the good things that people do that make this City better. Between the small mom and pop restaurants providing wonderful food to the community gardeners who make Alphabet City bloom, it really shows that New York City is bouncing back from COVID in its own way.
I started walking the streets of Lower Chelsea after Maricel and I spent the morning wondering around Chinatown with her nephew. I swear that kid has an appetite. We went out for dumplings and roast pork buns and between them and myself nothing was left.
Dumplings is a wonderful place on Henry Street right off Catherine Street in Chinatown and for $5.00 you can get either ten large pork and chive dumplings or ten large pork buns. I opted for the pork buns on this trip.
The Pork Buns from Dumplings
These make the best lunch
We ate in the park and caught up with work. I had to thank her again for that wonderful Afternoon Tea at the Plaza the week before. It was pretty amazing being back in the Palm Court after all those years.
Then it was off the Tasty Bakery on Catherine Street for dessert. We indulged in Cream buns for dessert. Tasty Bakery is one of those very local coffee and bakery places that the older Chinese residents meet during the day and that are quickly disappearing. That’s why you have to visit for these fantastic pastries.
The Cream filled buns are the best
Yum!
After walking around the East Village for a while, they left the City and I ventured up to Lower Chelsea to start the walk of the neighborhood. I walked up from Chinatown as the humidity seemed to die down today. It ended up being a bit cooler than the recent days. The weather had been so hot and humid during some of these walks.
I started the walk on this spectacular day in Madison Square Park. It was such a breathtaking sunny day and the humidity was finally starting to fall. Perfect for walking around the park admiring the gardens and fountains. Everything was in bloom and the park looked spectacular. I love this patch of green in the middle of Manhattan.
The statute of Senator William Sewart, who was famous for the purchase of Alaska ‘Stewart’s Folly’ greets you at the entrance to Madison Square Park at West 23rd Street
The park was in full bloom in the beginning of the summer and the pathways and gardens were just gorgeous.
Madison Square Park in front of Shake Shack
The fountain in the park
The flower pots around the fountain
Looking north of the park with the Empire State Building in the background
Walking along the paths inside the park
Looking west of the park in the trendy NoMAD neighborhood
The Lilly Pond in the northern side of the park
Looking south on the lawn in the middle of the park where office workers and tourists relaxed under the shade trees
Starting the walk on the cross roads of the neighborhood at West 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue
I love the way that the light reflects off the buildings at West 23rd Street
I was lucky that the weather broke. My recent Broadway was ended up being on a 91 degree day. I did not get too far that afternoon as ‘Manhattanhenge’, the alignment of the sun setting to the street grid of the West Side of Manhattan was that evening and I wanted to see it. I needed to get a good spot.
I doubled back that evening to watch ‘Manhattanhenge’, a time when the sun aligns with the buildings on the West Side and set a between the buildings. This happens two times a year and you have to pray for clear weather or else the clouds get in the way. The clouds got in the way this evening.
The start of ‘Manhattanhenge’ at 8:15pm on July 11th, 2025
The sun starting to set
The sun setting on ‘Mznhattanhenge’
Just as the sun set a cloud got in the way
A video of the final setting of the sun
After the sun set, I went back into Madison Square Park and just relaxed. It had been a long week of running around and was going to be busier over the weekend.
Madison Square Park is especially beautiful in the evening. The lights come on and then the park works its magic with all the beautiful lights, cool music from the patrons and the talking and laughter from the many people visiting on a warm New York evening.
The fountain inside the park at twilight
The Flatiron Building across from the park at night
The fountain flowing while looking north in the park
Video of the Madison Square Park fountain at night
The skyline of the park at night with the Empire State Building lit in the distance
During the warmer months, I have found Madison Square Park to be safe due to the sheer number of people in the park and the extra security the park hired. Still like any part of New York, you have to watch yourself. Don’t let your guard down just because there are people in the park. Just like any other part of New York City, have eyes in the back of your head.
I started my walk of the streets of Lower Chelsea around 1:00pm in the afternoon on a Saturday and found the City to be extremely quiet. Most of the residents must have been out of town. I started at the corner of West 22nd Street and Sixth Avenue in the middle of the old Ladies Shopping District.
The old department stores on Sixth Avenue and West 22nd Street
On the way down each block, I admired two things that stood out, the street art and the stone work that seemed to stare out you at every twist and turn on many of the buildings I passed.
The street art at the corner of Seventh Avenue and West 22ns Street
The other walk facing West 22nd Street
Walking down West 22nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues
The beautiful brownstones and brick townhouses on the block
One brownstone on this part of the street is 246 West 22nd Street with its interesting embellishments. This building is a pre-war apartment that was built in 1920(Streeteasy.com).
The unusual stonework on the building
The faces can captivate you
Face number one
Face number two
Face number three
Face number four
The next building to stand out was 262 West 22nd Street. This is another pre-war building was built in 1920 (Streeteasy.com).
Another building whose embellishments were rather unusual were outside of 264 West 22nd Street. This building was another pre-war building in the 1920’s. It has a lot of unique embellishments all over the building (Streeteasy.com).
West 22nd Street from Seventh to Ninth Avenues has several blocks of beautiful townhouses and brownstones some dating back to the mid 1880’s. The blocks look something out of a movie set.
Street art on the building at 441 West 16th Street
Street art on the building
Street art on the building
Walking under the High Line Park
Artist Eduardo Kobra painting “The Mount Rushmore of Art” above the Empire Diner at Tenth Avenue and West 22nd Street
The mural, created by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra, “Mount Rushmore of Art”, is the artist’s memorial to some of modern art’s biggest artists including Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat (Vibe Map 2023).
Eduardo Kobra is a Brazilian born artist known for his contemporary and colorful art murals all over the world.
I continued to walk down the road and admired the beauty of each of the streets with their front gardens and plantings.
The beauty of West 22nd Street between Eighth and Seventh Avenues
More faces staring at you while you walk by
I feel like they are passing judgement as you walk by
Even the work sites are home to art work
While making my way down West 22nd Street, I passed NY Cake, a specialty store all the items cake decorating and making. The store has everything you need for both professional and amateur baking. I walked along the aisles looking at all the merchandise when I spotted an fascinating piece of art at the front entrance.
Cake Artist Collette Peters is an American born baker, artist, cake design maker and author of “Collette’s Cakes: The Art of Cake Decorating”.
I the rounded West 21st Street and walked down the street admiring all the beautiful homes and street art.
Sixth Avenue and West 23rd Street
This was in the very heart of what once the ‘Ladies Shopping Mike’, with the former Crawford-Simpson Department store
The first thing I saw as I walked down the street admiring, tucked in between the buildings was the Third Shearith Jewish Cemetery at 98-110 West 21st Street.
The Third Shearith Cemetery at 98-110 West 21St Street
When Congregation Shearith Israel was forced to close its graveyard in Greenwich Village in 1829, it established a new cemetery in an area even further away from the city center. The 21st Street cemetery served as the congregation’s burial ground until 1851, when the city banned burials below 86th Street (New York City Cemetery Project website). Their original cemetery was just off Canal Street in Chinatown and also sits behind a locked gate.
The cemetery is a quiet reminder that the City keeps progressing and builds around the past. It just shows how time marches on.
The inside of the cemetery
There is a real beauty to these small historic cemeteries. You wonder if the families understood the changes and progress in the City over the next hundred years.
The small cemetery seems surreal in this built up neighborhood
I wondered if anyone visited these folks anymore. The cemetery looks like it is taken care of but not on a regular basis.
As I continued to walk down the street more surprises popped up along the way. Along the blocks with townhouses and brownstones, there are small pocket gardens and flower beds bursting with color. Along all these streets in Chelsea, there were little surprises everywhere on buildings architecture, tucked in corners by stairs and along the staircases. There is a lot of detail you can miss if you don’t stop for a moment and just appreciate it.
The beautiful plantings and urban gardens that lined the street
Outside of C.S. Hardware at 189 Seventh Avenue there is an interesting mural
The streets in the neighborhood are really picturesque and look like they are out of a movie set. The streets are lined with beautiful brownstones and brick townhouses. Just be careful as the faces follow you around. You will find one thing about Chelsea, the faces on the buildings are all over the place and each has their own unique look about them.
The beauty of West 21st Street
Faces carved into the doorways around the neighborhood
They just seem to follow you around
Even on the sidewalks faces follow you on the walk to 11th Avenue. The eyes are always watching
I love all the carved faces in the buildings in the neighborhood. These interesting embellishments in some cases are the only decorations the buildings have so I looked out for them as I walked by. The rest of the building is rather plain but the keystone greeting you always has a look of longing.
I wasn’t sure if this was a lion or a demon
The neighborhood has three Fernando Kobra murals painted on the buildings. This is ‘I ❤️ New York’ on 212 Eighth Avenue.
The Kobra painting ‘I Love New York’
The Kobra painting of Albert Einstein ‘We ❤️ New York’
I continued my walk down West 21st Street looking at the treasure trove of outside art and architecture.
The entrance to the Reilly Building
Has the most interesting face guarding the building
The buildings that watch you
Look at you with a look of horror
The residents creating small gardens along the blocks
I loved this stone chair outside on of the brownstones
Passing by the Guardian Angel School on 193 Tenth Avenue with High-line Park in full bloom
The church school was designed and built in 1930 by architect John Van Pelt of the Van Pelt, Hardy & Goubert firm. The building was designed in the Southern Sicilian Romanesque style and has many different religious elements in the detail of the outside of the building. You have to look at it from all directions to appreciate its beauty (Wiki).
On the corner of West 21st Street and 11th Avenue, I came across this interesting drawing on a plastic barrier. I assumed the street artist was from Jamaica.
Walking on the other side of West 21st Street on the way back showed just as many interesting views.
High line Park is in full bloom by 10th Avenue
Walking down West 21st Street near Eighth Avenue
Walking past the historic brick townhouses in the neighborhood
As I passed the school yard, I saw this work on the fence and thought it was really whimsical
As I left West 21st Street, I took another peak at the cemetery and thought about when they buried these people. It must have been wilderness at the time this cemetery was created. The first one is down in Chinatown.
I rounded West 20th Street in the late afternoon and I did notice a change in the architecture as I walked further into the neighborhood. It seemed a little more commercial though the use of the buildings seem to be changing.
Then I passed Chelsea Green Park at 140 West 20th Street
The Chelsea Green Park was an oasis from the hot weather that had been going on the week I walked the neighborhood. It seemed all the parents were trying to escape the heat as well as everyone sat under shade trees while the kids ran through the sprays of water and throwing water balloons at each other.
Chelsea Green Park sign
The parks history
This park sits on a former school and when the building was torn down, the neighborhood rallied to create this park. This much needed green space is the neighborhood focal point on these hot summer days that we experienced in the summer of 2025.
Walking by the busy park in the early afternoon
Some of the businesses are quite unique in the neighborhood. I loved the window display at ‘Purple Passion’ at 211 West 20th Street. If anything stood out was this creative set of ensembles.
The display window at Purple Passion at 211 West 20th Street
Purple Passion has become the darling of fetishists-in-the-know over the last few years almost exclusively by word of mouth. A selection of fetish “toys”, restraints and clothing more diverse than almost any other store in New York is crammed into a tiny shop now so packed with merchandise it’s difficult for more than two or three customers to be inside it at once (The NYCGoth.com website).
This interesting brownstone is a pre-war building that was built in 1920. This rather daring face protects the entrance of the building.
The front door is on guard
The blocks in the center of the neighborhood down each street from Seventh to Ninth Avenue are lined with rows of rows of tree lined streets with classic brick townhouses.
Walking down the picturesque West 20th Street
The garden boxes along the way
Flowers peaking out here and there along the walls
The residents landscaping the tree boxes along the street
A tree growing in the High Line Hotel courtyard at 180 Tenth Avenue
The Cushman Row is one of the finest examples of Greek Revival style of architecture in New York, this superbly designed row of houses has retained most of its handsome original detail. Built by Don Alonzo Cushman, parish leader and financier, in 1840 (from the Cushman Historical Marker).
Then I passed the elegant and beautiful St. Peter’s Church was in the middle of the neighborhood.
The sign for St. Peter’s Episcopal Church at 346 West 20th Street
The historic St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in the summer of 2025
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church was constructed in 1835 and was designed by architect James W. Smith in the Greek Revivial style. The design was also influenced by Clement Clarke Moore, on whose estate the land had been donated (Wiki).
As I passed the 10th Precinct at 230 West 20th Street, I looked at the 9/11 mural and realized that next year would be 25 years since that horrible day. It is amazing how fast it has gone by.
I stopped inside the Chelsea Green Park to relax for a while and it was a lot of kids running around and parents talking amongst themselves. The kids seemed occupied by both a water balloon and a squirt gun fight.
The Chelsea Green Park in the late afternoon
After a nice rest and a lot of water, I turned down West 19th Street to continue my tour.
In front of of the old Siegel-Cooper Department Store building on Sixth Avenue and West 19th Street
Walking past the townhouses along West 19th Street
The street art along the way
The beautiful gardens in front of of the homes
In the middle of the block were the Robert Fulton Houses which along with the Chelsea-Elliott Houses are both slated for demolishing later this year. That will change the completion of this neighborhood. These were opened in 1962 and were designed by architects Brown & Guenther.
Its narrow, 18-foot-width precluded the traditional stable design of a centered carriage bay flanked by a pedestrian entrance and window. The property was a three-story brick house, home to Samuel Weekes and his family who would remain through 1858 (DaytonianinManhattan.com).
I liked the sign at the top of the door way of the “A Hug from The Art World”
I took a break after all the walking at The Sleeping Cat at 160 Seventh Avenue for a quick snack/late lunch. The place was pretty crowded in the late afternoon. They ran out of the three things I wanted to try so I ordered a Chicken with Brie Club sandwich on a milk bun with a Pomegranate soda for lunch.
My lunch that afternoon
The Chicken and Brie sandwich
Yum!
For dessert I chose a Lemon Poppyseed Cake, which was delicious. You could really taste the fresh lemon juice and zest in the cake.
The inside of the unique coffee shop
I continued my tour of the neighborhood a few days later when I came back into the City for the Michigan State Alumni Picnic that Saturday. We ended the picnic at 4:00pm, so I walked from Central Park to West 18th Street after a pit stop to recharge my phone and go to the bathroom.
I wanted to finish the neighborhood before dark but could only finish the blocks from West 18th through West 17th Streets. You just can’t take good pictures after 7:00pm when the shadows hit the buildings.
Starting on West 18th Street
Some of the interesting street art you will see in the neighborhood
This series of what looks like old carriage houses lines West 18th Street just off Sixth Avenue
These buildings were designed in a round arched utilitarian style related to the German Rundbogenstil and incorporate Romanesque and Renaissance Revival details. They were built between 1864 and 1865 and were used as stables (HDC.com). They are now being used as restaurants, shops and art galleries.
A close up of one of the series of buildings at 136 West 18th Street
There were several buildings that stood out along West 18th Street and one of them was 154 West 18th Street, the Hellmutg Building now home to the Lazzoni store.
The Hellmuth Building was designed by architect Adolph Schoeller in the Art Nouveau style in 1907 and was built for William Hellmuth, who was a highly-successful manufacturer of printing and lithographic inks and varnishes (DaytonianinNYC.com)
The details of the Hellmuth Building
The carved embellishment of the building
Another building that stood out was the Art Deco style Walker Tower at 212 West 18th Street
Originally constructed in 1929 as a commercial building for the New York Telephone Company, this historic structure was designed by the renowned architect Ralph Thomas Walker, celebrated for his distinctive Art Deco style (The Walker Tower website).
The Walker Tower in full view
The art deco details to the outside of the building
The details outside of 265 West 18th Street were very unique.
While I was walking down the street, I passed the Room & Board store and saw all the embellishments on the building and wondered what they meant. It was the insignia for the old Seigel-Cooper Warehouse building.
The old Siegel-Cooper Warehouse Building is now home to the Room & Board showroom at 249 West 17th Street with entrance at West 18th Street
The Seigel-Cooper insignia can still be seen on the building
The building was designed by the architectural firm De Lemos & Cordes and opened in 1904. the architects used lusty terra cotta ornaments to distinguish the façade. Each pier culminated with winged orbs bearing a sash emblazoned with SC&Co; and the bay doors were flanked by large, intricate wreaths (DaytonianinManhattan.com).
You can find street art all over the sidewalks in this neighborhood. Just look down and many artists leave their mark.
This interesting twin building with a mansard roof was built in 1910 (Streeteasy.com). What I thought was interesting about the building is how it stands out amongst all the brick townhouses that had a plainer design. It looks like something you would see on the Upper East Side inside of this neighborhood.
As I passed the high school in the area, I came across this mural painted on the playground walls. I saw this mural on the Liberty High School for Newcomers at 250 West 18th Street. I could not get a good look at it as the playground was locked.
The mural outside of the Liberty High School for Newcomers at 250 West 18th Street
A serpent embellishment outside one of the buildings
Tucked in the corners of buildings all over the neighborhood, there were all sorts of interesting and unusual street art and stone carvings and embellishments. While most of the buildings were rather plain, it was a serpent here, a dragon there and a face staring back at you from the front door keystone that gave the building something special to admire.
Some of the street artists, whether hired or tagging were very creative on the sides of buildings. I am sure that the building owners were not happy to see this but the City has its own ideas sometimes.
You have to look up or you will miss this street art on the top of one of the buildings
I have seen this artist’s work all over the neighborhood
With all the unique architecture and street art along West 18th Street, I anticipated more surprises when I rounded the corner of West 17th Street. You never know what you will see tucked here and there along these streets.
Turning the corner along West 17th Street and Sixth Avenue
The mural of ‘I Love New York’ is iconic in this neighborhood. This has been here for many years. This work of art was created by artist Nick Walker.
Artist Nick Walker is a British born artist that now lives in Manhattan. He is know for being part of the ‘stencil art’ movement that was started in the 1980’s. He is know for his large murals of contemporary art and is best known for merging freehand work with stenciled imagery (Wiki/Artsy.net).
As I started to walk down West 16th Street, I passed an old friend in the restaurant da Umberto’s at 107 West 17th Street. I have spent the last three Halloween nights enjoying dinner with other volunteers from the Halloween parade here after the parade was over. The food and service are excellent.
Da Umberto’s Restaurant is where we have our dinners after finishing our night volunteering at the Halloween Parade. I have been here for the post dinner celebration for the last four years and the food and service are wonderful (See review on TripAdvisor.com).
Our dinner at Da Umberto’s on Halloween night
The restaurant’s food and service are wonderful and I highly recommend it.
The irony was just to add to the Halloween lore, these street art bats were right next to the restaurant.
One of the most beautiful buildings on the block is the old Xavier Parochial School now the Winston Preparatory School at 126 West 17th Street. The details on the school are so beautiful and it still has the original entrances of one for Boys and one for Girl’s.
The Winston Preparatory School at 126 West 17th Street
The building at 128 West 17th Street was built around 1853 and had once served as the Xavier Parochial School and now houses the Winston Preparatory School (Wiki).
The old Boys entrance
The old Girl’s entrance
All along the buildings in Chelsea there are the interesting embellishments that stare, surprise and snarl at you. You just have to put down that cellphone and look up.
The top of the building had many snarling tigers staring out into space
Embellishment on the top of the building
The embellishments on the top of the building
Another building that stood was futuristic structure with all sorts of pot holes. This is the former Maritime Union Building that is now the Dream Hotel. It was once part of a series of three buildings that was part of the National Maritime Union. When the Union folded due to lack of membership as industry changed, the building was left empty. The building designed byBronx-born but New Orleans-based architect Albert C. Ledner in 1966 (New Yorkitecture 2015).
When I walked to the end of the block and turned back, it took a look across the street to the Robert Fulton Houses playground and saw the most creative and unusual set of plantings along the wall. I could not find on the artist on these works (but I will keep looking). These are fun!
The paintings in the Robert Fulton figure
This series of paintings was behind the water fountain along the back wall of the park.
The close up of the third painting in the series
This painting of the Chicken crossing the road “Don’t Ask” by Artist Allison Katz. It seemed to replace the Pink Panther mural of a few weeks ago.
Artist Allison Katz presents Don’t ASK. On this monumental scale, a rooster and hen are depicted in the middle of an asphalt street, seemingly bringing to life the classic anti-joke, “why did the chicken cross the road?” (High Line.org).
Artist Allison Katz is Canadian born artist who now lives in London, England. She studied Fine Arts at Concordia University in Montreal and received her MFA from Columbia University in New York. Katz’s work investigates the ways in which aesthetic practices link and absorb autobiography, information systems, graphic icons, and art history (Ago.ca).
At the very end of the road, West 17th Street turned into a cobblestone street and you do not see much of this anymore in Manhattan.
Walking back from Tenth Avenue, I saw the street art from a different angle and I could see the street art peaking out from behind the fence.
The street art in the empty lot along 20th Avenue
There was something unique about this tiny garden just off 10th Avenue
Another face staring out at me
There was another small park on this block to relax and cool off too. The Dr. Gertrude Kelly Park is another patch of green where residents were relaxing that afternoon.
It was nice to be able to sit under a shade tree and just relax. Though it was not as hot as previous days, it got warmer in the late afternoon.
The inside of Dr. Gertrude B. Kelly Park on hot afternoon
The park goes through the two blocks
On the way back to Sixth Avenue, I passed the back of the old Siegel-Cooper Department Store warehouse building that is now the Room & Board store. The same beautiful details were on both sides of the building.
The Seigel-Cooper Warehouse Building
Here and there I kept seeing such interesting street art along the walls and corners of buildings all over the neighborhood.
This interesting looking ‘PAC Man’ figure was on one of the walls of a building on the block
The last building I passed was the Rubin Museum which was closed that day. I had not been there in over a decade and remembered that it did have very interesting art. I had not realized that the museum had closed its doors in the Fall of 2024. It closed October 6th, 2024.
The Rubin Museum at 140 West 17th Street (Closed in October 2024)
The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art (formerly Rubin Museum of Art) was founded in 2004 as a haven for Himalayan art in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City by Shelley and Donald Rubin, who are philanthropists, cultural leaders, and collectors. The opening was the culmination of 30 years of art collecting, six years of planning, and the purchase and renovation of the former Barneys department store (Rubin Museum website-Museum Closed in October 2024).
As I exited West 17th Street to finish my walk of this part of the Chelsea neighborhood, I came across this interesting piece of street art on Seventh Avenue. It always amazes me with people on what they can create.
This was on the wall of an empty store on Seventh Avenue
On my last day walking around the lower part of the neighborhood, the temperature hit 96 degrees and the humidity was worse. Since I only had to walk from Sixth to Eleventh Avenues from 15th to 16th Streets, I thought it would take about an hour. Throw in lunch and a dessert break and it was two and a half hours in the heat.
Starting the walk at the corner of West 16th Street and Sixth Avenue
The tree lined blocks between Sixth and Seventh Avenues
Here and there the small gardens pop up with lots of colorful flowers
I loved this serpent carving at the entrance of 200 West 16th Street. The building was covered with all types of creatures.
t was the first of the four distinguished developments by visionary developer Henry Mandel and was designed by esteemed architects Farrar & Watmough. Farrar & Watmough harmoniously blended the Jazz Age and Gothic Revival styles creating a building with a visually striking and architecturally significant facade adorned with variegated orange brick, limestone and terracotta (Streeteasy.com)
The serpent above the doorway at 200 West 16th Street
I had to stop for some lunch and I came across a pizzeria that had been my ‘go-to’ since I started at NYU. I always enjoyed the specials for lunch and dinner. In just a year, the prices did go up a few dollars but the pizzeria is still reasonable.
J’s Pizza at 96 Seventh Avenue at the corner of Seventh Avenue and West 16th Street
I stopped in at J’s Pizza for a quick lunch. I had not realized I had not eaten here since I had graduated from NYU in the middle of last year (did college fly by in the blink of an eye). I forgot how good their food was when I ordered my lunch. I had a slice of their Fresh Mozzarella Sicilian pizza and a Coke and it hit the spot on this hot day.
My Sicilian slice
What a great lunch and a nice break
I continued my walk down West 16th Street passing businesses and homes and noticing the changes in the neighborhood with renovations and new buildings going up. More and more this particular neighborhood is getting very desirable and the homes more expensive.
The embellishments outside of 224 West 16th Street
This interesting pre-war building was built in 1800’s (Streeteasy.com). By the mid-1840’s Timothy Phelan and his family lived in the three story, brick-faced house at 197 West 16th Street (renumbered 319 in 1859), just west of Eighth Avenue. Twenty-five feet wide, its dignified Greek Revival design reflected influences of the emerging Italianate, notably in the understated entrance above a stone stoop (DaytonianinNYC.com)
The stonework in more detail
The end of the block is dominated by the Marine Hotel and its series of high end restaurants
The Marine Hotel with its restaurant, Tao Downtown is in front
Then I saw this very unusual street art right by the Fulton Houses
The High Line Park dominates over this part of the neighborhood with its lush plantings and its interesting display of artwork. Try to walk the distance on the walkways of this incredible urban park.
As I was walking back up the street, I noticed a whole building of faces following me along the sides of 111-114 Eleventh Avenue. You have to look really closely to see the changes by each window.
Along Eleventh Avenue I had not noticed this building at all
You have to look at each window and doorway from across the street to really appreciate the beauty of this building.
The last of art that I saw on the block was this mural for the Bond Vet business around the corner by artist Jade Purple Brown. I thought the colors were so vibrant and that it really promoted this business well.
Jade Purple Brown is a Brooklyn based artist known for her vibrant portrayals of Black women in psychedelic, dreamlike worlds (Artist bio on website).
I finally rounded West 15th and Sixth Avenue in the late afternoon and breathed a sigh of relief as it was getting so hot out.
Reaching West 15th Street and the edge of both Lower Chelsea and the Meatpacking District at the end of a hot afternoon. There was a picturesque view of old New York between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. More tree lined blocks with brick townhouses.
The Old Nee York look about the blocks in Chelsea
Here and there tucked within dome of plain brick and brownstone homes, interesting carvings and embellishments can be found.
Decorated below the windows of 229 West 15th Street, I saw these interesting carvings staring back at me.
This unique pre-war building was built in 1901 (Streeteasy.com)
Face number one staring back with an evil look
Face number two just as evil
As I walked down the street, a French flag and the colors of France when I passed La Sandwicherie Chelsea, which I found out later had two small sister restaurants. I saw these festive signs for crepes and sandwiches, I stopped in to take a peek.
I was still a little stuffed from the pizza but thought a crepe might be nice to tide me through the rest of the evening.
The front of La Sandwicherie Chelsea at 239 West 15th Street
The selling point was the sign. It did remind me of Paris
The sandwiches sounded interesting too
I stopped inside and I swear I was back in Paris again with the tiny chairs and tables and the French music. I was not thrilled that the price was higher inside but only by a dollar and the manager explained it to me. I was still in the mood for that crepe.
The inside of the restaurant brought me right back to Paris
The shelves were lined with the wonderful French potato chips I had tried at the food show
I ordered a Strawberry Crepe, which was a freshly made crepe( he even showed me the crepe batter to prove it), which was filled with strawberry jam and topped with sugar. I ordered a Pomegranate soda to have with my dessert.
The Strawberry Crepe with my soda
Yum!
Now having some more carbs and sugar to wear off, I started back down West 15th Street happy and content. The crepe brought back a lot of memories of my trip to Paris two summers ago.
I continued my walk down West 15th Street with more pairs of eyes watching me at the buildings.
What I love about this building is the extensive embellishment of faces and curvatures throughout the front of the building. Faces stare at you from all directions and passing judgement right by the front door. You have to look up and down to really appreciate this building.
There is emended detail to building
The faces staring back
Don’t pass judgement
The sister building next door at 251 West 15th Street had just as many details.
At Stonehenge Gardens, travel through the private gate and along the walkway where you will find this gem of a building setback between 14th and 15th streets. Built in 1950, this six-story building is located in the center of Manhattan’s trendiest downtown neighborhoods: Chelsea, the West Village and Union Square (From the Stonehenge website).
The private gate and gardens were locked when I was visiting the neighborhood but you could see how beautiful it was right behind the gate.
Finishing my walk down West 15th Street
The Jazz Concert that evening at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens:
After I finished the streets of Lower Chelsea, I took the subway to Brooklyn for a Jazz Concert at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. On the way to the subway, I noticed these two mosaics on the wall of the subway platform. What interesting work by Brooklyn based artist Fred Tomaselli entitled “Wild Things”. These gorgeous and colorful works flank both the upstairs and downstairs of the subway station
Artist Fred Tomaselli is an American born artist best known for his highly detailed paintings on wood panels, combining an array of unorthodox materials suspended in a thick layer of clear, epoxy resin. He studied at California State University and his studio is in Brooklyn (Wiki).
It was a quick subway ride to the gardens on the express subway and I got there in record time . It was enough time to tour the gardens before the concert. The gardens were at their peak in the middle of the summer and everything was so green.
The lawn by the Cherry Bloom Gardens
The Cherry Bloom lawn is where the concerts are held
People getting ready for the concert
Members waiting on the lawn for the concert to begin
I was sunny and warm out when I got there and just about five minutes before they were supposed to start the concert, it poured for the next twenty minutes. They end up cancelling the concert again on me. The weather played havoc that evening.
The only problem was that the moment it stopped those twenty minutes later, the sun came back and it was beautiful as the musicians were packing up. I can tell everyone hoped they would have a change of heart. They kept packing up and I decided to walk around the gardens again. There would be one more concert in the future the next week.
It did clear up after it stopped raining
The sun rose over the Japanese Gardens
So for the next hour, I just wanted to walk around and admire the flowers and the garden beds.
It ended up being a nice night and the best way to end of evening.
Even though the concert was cancelled, it still was a nice evening and I did get my share of exercise. Even as the lights turned on in the Botanic Gardens, there is still such a magic of walking along the beds and admiring the flowers and the other plantings. You should not miss the gardens during any of the seasons. There is always something to see even in the dead of winter. The true beauty though is in the late Spring and early Summer when everything is in bloom.
The Summer Solstice arrived on a beautiful sunny and warm afternoon. It looked like a heat wave was coming but today and tomorrow we’re going to be spectacular. It would be a nice day for a walk.
I would have ordinarily have done The Great Saunter on my own today but Maricel and I had plans in the afternoon that I did not want to break but fell through the day before. That and I had tickets to a special event at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for a special ‘Summer Solstice’ concert and I really wanted to go to the concert. Plus being in the Gardens at night for Member’s events is a real treat.
Once the plans fell through and after getting a series of errands done, I headed into Manhattan for a quick lunch and the I would walk all the Avenues between West 23rd and West 14th Streets between 10th and 7th Avenues. It took me about four hours to do because I kept stopping in parks and walking around the Chelsea Market between Ninth and Tenth Avenues.
I started the walk with a good lunch. I had been wanting to go back to Kashmir 9 at 478 Ninth Avenue for a while so I started my day there. The place was packed. The food is a combination of Indian and Arabic cuisines and gets an interesting crowd of people from all walks of life. The food is wonderful and very reasonable.
The Chicken Kebabs with rice and a Chicken Patty at Kashmir 9 at 479 Ninth Avenue
The Chicken Kebobs here are excellent
The Chicken Patties make a good starter
Yum!
It can be a real culture shock eating here because you will feel like you got transported to the Middle East. You are surrounded by men speaking Hindi and Arabic chatting away while other men are doing their afternoon prayers. It is an interesting experience at lunch.
After a perfect lunch of proteins and carbohydrates, I was ready for the long walk around the neighborhood. It was the perfect day with no humidity and bright sunshine. I walked down to West 23rd Street and Tenth Avenue and started my walk around the neighborhood. Chelsea is such a great neighborhood to walk around in.
The corner of Tenth Avenue and West 23rd Street
This section of the Chelsea neighborhood has been in massive flux since the opening the High Line Park. It has been totally rebuilt over the last several years. I have never seen such changes before in a neighborhood. Along the High Line Park, there are all sorts of innovative new buildings that have been built or under construction.
While walking down Tenth Avenue, I noticed the beautiful mural located outside Juban Restaurant at 206 Tenth Avenue. I thought the colors and design were so vibrant.
The interesting painting outside of Juban at 206 Tenth Avenue
I thought the mural outside the restaurant was interesting (I could not find the artist who did the outside mural)
History of the restaurant:
(From the Juban website)
Set in the heart of Chelsea’s gallery district, Juban’s rich culture offers a convivial and inspired experience of authentic fare. Here, seasonal menus and artful murals converge—serving tradition with the wink of innovation.
Juban is an inventive Izakaya dedicated to bringing wonder to the experience of Japanese cuisine in a local setting. With every meal designed for discovery, its creative spirit unfolds through community. Artful sushi, masterful seafood, elevated skewers, and neighborhood favorites are served family-style to celebrate sharing and connecting. At once serendipitous and soulful, its unique approach always serves the moment.
Further down Tenth Avenue outside of the Empire Diner building is the mural “The Mount Rushmore of Art”, one of the many murals in the neighborhood created by artist Eduardo Kobra, who has murals painted all over New York City. This one stuck out for its take on Contemporary Artists of the Twentieth Century.
Artist Eduardo Kobra painting “The Mount Rushmore of Art” above the Empire Diner at Tenth Avenue and West 22nd Street
The mural, created by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra, “Mount Rushmore of Art”, is the artist’s memorial to some of modern art’s biggest artists including Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat (Vibe Map 2023).
Eduardo Kobra is a Brazilian born artist known for his contemporary and colorful art murals all over the world.
Further down Tenth Avenue, I passed the Guardian Angel School at 193 Tenth Avenue. What stood out on this building was the beautiful and intricate stone work that embellishes the building. It really is an interesting building.
The Guardian Angel School at 193 Tenth Avenue had a lot of interesting stonework around the building. The school is currently closed.
The church school was designed and built in 1930 by architect John Van Pelt of the Van Pelt, Hardy & Goubert firm. The building was designed in the Southern Sicilian Romanesque style and has many different religious elements in the detail of the outside of the building. You have to look at it from all directions to appreciate its beauty (Wiki).
What’s sad is that the school has been closed as part of the cutbacks of the Archdiocese of New York. Right now the community is fighting to keep this school open. We will see how the building gets used in the future.
As I walked down Tenth Avenue, you can see all the changes in the neighborhood and the architecture that surrounds both Tenth and Ninth Avenues. This area of the City has seen so many changes due to the opening of the High Line over the last ten years. This part of the neighborhood has some of the most interesting looking buildings and many innovative art galleries and restaurants. It still is in the process of changing. Many old warehouses and factory buildings have been converted into lofts and apartments.
The creativity in the new architecture that lines Tenth Avenue
One of the most beautiful of these new buildings is the Lantern House Apartments at 149 Tenth Avenue
The Lantern House sign at 149 Tenth Avenue
(From the Related Corporate website)
Lantern House is designed by Heatherwick Studio, founded by the British designer Thomas Heatherwick in 1994. The building offers a distinctive reinvention of the Chelsea warehouse architectural style, featuring a modern interpretation of the bay window and a custom masonry façade. The 21-story building comprises a collection of approximately 180 one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom residences, many of which bestow uninterrupted cityscape and Hudson River views and promise to provide residents a totally integrated lifestyle destination. Lantern House is part of a two-tower development that links underneath the High Line.
As I walked back up Tenth Avenue, I saw this series of graffiti art on the side of a building that will quickly disappear as the lot next to it will become a new apartment building. Still the work was very interesting.
Even the street graffiti was interesting but will not last with all the new construction
The one thing I like about the Tenth Avenue side of the neighborhood is the access to Hudson River Park and all the trails, shaded areas to relax, gardens and views of the built up side of Jersey City and the Hudson River coastline. There are all sorts of benches and shaded areas to just read a book and talk to people. No matter what the age is, people of all types are conversing in the parks.
Hudson River Park lines the neighborhood and the edges of West 14th Street
The success of the Hudson River Park under the Giuliani/Bloomberg Administrations when things ran correctly in New York City.
Hudson River Park at the corner of Tenth Avenue and West 14th Street in the Summer of 2025
Hudson River Park at the corner of West 14th Street and Tenth Avenue
Stopping in Hudson River Park for a half hour to cool off was wonderful. The breezes from the river were really nice and it was relaxing to just sit under a shade tree and watch the world go by. As I left the park and started my walk back up Tenth Avenue, I just saw how breathtaking the view was as I looked back up to West 23rd Street.
Looking up the ever changing neighborhood that lines Tenth Avenue from West 14th Street
I saw people walking around an interesting clothing shop and peeked through the windows. I could not find the entrance and walked through the door of a back hall. It ended up being the back entrance to the Chelsea Market, whose main entrance is on Ninth Avenue. I didn’t even know there was a back entrance and never explored the stores to the back of the complex. The market had once been the old Nabisco factory and you can still see some of the original features of the old building.
The inside of the Chelsea Market in the back entrance at Tenth Avenue between West 15th and 16th Street. The Market was mobbed that day. It was the middle of lunch hour. Between the locals and the tourists, you could barely move around the complex.
The selection at Sarabeth’s can be a bit pricey but the quality is excellent and the food is always consistently delicious. When I took a tour of Little Island with NYU at the start of the school year by second year at the college we came here for lunch and then had a picnic on the island. Great selection of items.
The mural “Soft Power” next to the Lantern House Building with the Pink Panther Mural in the front of the High Line
As I walked back up Tenth Avenue, I came across this giant billboard of the Pink Panther. The work is entitled “Soft Power”
Artist Alex Da Corte presents a new artwork for the High Line’s 18th Street Billboard, inspired by the Pink Panther, a Friz Freleng creation designed for the animated opening sequence of a 1963 Hollywood comedy that came to embody the film and has evolved, through 60 years of spin-offs and reinventions, into cultural ubiquity. Pink’s durability across many generations has allowed it to sell countless products, from fiberglass insulation foam to artificial sweetener, yet the creature’s essence remains out of reach.
With neither master nor peer—and seemingly eternally unbound by the rules of others—Pink represents a certain queer freedom. Da Corte revives Pink as an icon of resistance, supine but poised, wielding a sign of universal protest, brandishing a clear pink purpose. “There is a difference between falling down and laying down,” Da Corte explains. “I call that soft power.” This billboard is an advertisement for the value of such power.
Alex Da Corte is an American born Venezuelan-American artist now living in Philadelphia. Da Corte was the 2023 Philip Guston Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome (Artist bio).
Another interesting mural was on the side of The Chelsea Square Market at 130 Tenth Street is of Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi by artist Eduardo Kobra, whose work I had seen earlier on my walk and I have seen all over Manhattan. These two icons of peace face each other in a store that sells delicious deli food (see the artist bio above).
The Kobra painting “Tolerance” on the Chelsea Square Market building at 79th Tenth Avenue of Mother Theresa and Gandhi
As I was walking up Tenth Avenue towards West 21st Street, I passed a wine store and saw this sign. It was just after Pride week and I thought this sign was amusing and fun.
I saw this sign outside the wine store, Community Wine & Spirits at 140 Tenth Avenue and thought it was very clever
As I continued up Tenth Avenue, I passed Clement Clarke Moore Park, which was once part of the Moore farm and estate. The park was busy with parents and children cooling off. A series of ice cream men and guys selling ices kept coming in and out of the park while I was there. It is the perfect place to stop and cool off on a hot day.
The Clement Clarke Moore Playground at Tenth Avenue and West 22nd Street
The park sits on the spot of the original estate of the Moore family and the plaque were the mansion once stood is around the corner on West 23rd Street. This park is wonderful during the warmer months to just sit and relax.
The picnic area of the park
The playground area was packed with kids running around the parks fountains
The gardens were in full bloom and were so well maintained
It was in 1837 that poet Clement Clark Moore claimed to be the author. Even today there is a controversy of who really wrote the poem, Clement Clark Moore or Major Henry James Livingston Jr. This discussion is still being debated today (Wiki).
How the poem mixed well into the tour is that Clement Moore’s family owned an estate here on the area on West 23rd Street between Hudson River and Eighth Avenue from West 24th Street to West 19th Street. His home was at 348 West 23rd Street. He developed the area after donating a large portion of the estate to his church and created a residential neighborhood that still stands today.
The Clement Clarke Moore estate when he sold it into real estate parcels
The historical marker for the Moore Mansion. It is claimed that he penned ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ here (this has been debated over the years)
I then started my trip down Ninth Avenue, which has been rapidly gentrifying even around the public housing over the last twenty years. Now it has been announced that the City will be knocking down both the Chelsea-Elliott and Robert Fulton Public Housing complexes. The cost to renovate these structures are too expensive and it will be replaced by mixed housing.
Looking down Ninth Avenue from West 23rd Street and the changes that are coming between Ninth and Tenth Avenues
Discussion on the replacement of the Public Housing Projects around the neighborhood:
As I walked down Ninth Avenue, I was treated to a diversity of architecture from different times. I have admired these two tiny wooden buildings for years and they have an interesting past. They were built in the 1840’s after the Moore estate was broken up for real estate plots for new homes.
These two small building at 185-189 Ninth Avenue were built in the 1840’s by real estate developer James N. Wells and were used by local merchants who lived about them (Daytonian in Manhattan.com). It is amazing to me when buildings from over a hundred years ago have survived this long and still in use. Here and there in Manhattan I have found these buildings from the early 1800’s along street and corners of neighborhoods on the island.
Another building that stood was futuristic structure with all sorts of pot holes. This is the former Maritime Union Building that is now the Dream Hotel. It was once part of a series of three buildings that was part of the National Maritime Union. When the Union folded due to lack of membership as industry changed, the building was left empty. The building designed byBronx-born but New Orleans-based architect Albert C. Ledner in 1966 (New Yorkitecture 2015).
Walking past the hotel, the front of the Chelsea Market stands tall on the corner of Ninth Avenue right across the street from the NYC Google headquarters. Before the layoffs at the company, the Chelsea Market was really bustling with office workers during lunch hour. Now its a majority tourists and local New Yorkers from all over the City. This building was an interesting conversion from building the old Nabisco Manufacturing plant (National Biscuit Company)
History of the National Biscuit company and the building transformation:
It seemed more mysterious when you entered from the Tenth Avenue side of what you would expect to see. The market is a lot of fun especially at lunch time or on the weekends when the facility is packed with tourists coming to tour and eat at the Market.
On the very edge of Chelsea, sharing it with the Meatpacking District is the historic Homestead Steakhouse. The restaurant was established in 1868 and is the oldest continuous running steak house in the United States. The restaurant was originally called the ‘Tidewater Trading Post’ and had been opened by German immigrants. The restaurant still has excellent reviews on TripAdvisor and their steaks are considered some of the best in the City.
The oldest steakhouse in NYC, The Homestead Steakhouse at 56 Ninth Avenue and West 14th Street
I continued up Ninth Avenue, admiring the ever changing architecture of the neighborhood. This area had once been all shipping and freight filled with warehouses that now are boutique hotels and shops and art galleries. It amazes me the changes in the past thirty years.
Looking up Ninth Avenue from West 14th Street
Another mural that has captured my attention both in the past and on this series of walks in the neighborhood is the painting on the side of Gotham Pizza at 144 Ninth Avenue
Gotham Pizza at 144 Ninth Avenue has the most interesting mural on the side of it. It was created by artist Jenna Morello.
Artist Jenna Morello is an American born artist based in Brooklyn. She is known for her colorful and detailed murals.
While walking on the other side of the avenue, I got a better look at the architecture along the street. As I walked up the other side of Ninth Avenue I got a better look at the wooden buildings.
185-189 Ninth Avenue
I turned the corner and walked down Eighth Avenue, the heart of the gay community. I have to say, you are always reminded of this too when you pass many of the establishments especially during Pride Week. Rainbow flags and colors were decorated all over the place. Up and down Eighth Avenue, there are all sorts of interesting shops and restaurants.
Walking down Eighth Avenue with the mural “We Love NY”
This is the third mural by artist Eduardo Kobra and shows a playful Albert Einstein showing his love of the “Big Apple”. This interesting painting towers over Eighth Avenue. These murals add such a playful and interesting look at the neighborhood and its creativity.
The Kobra painting of Albert Einstein ‘We ❤️ New York’
On of my favorite restaurants in Chelsea is S & A Gourmet Deli, which has a wonderful selection of sandwiches and salads located at 240 Eighth Avenue.
What I love about New York is that one every corner there seems to be a favorite bodega or deli that sells what you need when you need it. Some also just stand out for the quality of the food and the service and selection. S & A Gourmet Deli is one of those places.
A friend and I had just stopped in to buy sandwiches for lunch that we were going to enjoy a few blocks away in Madison Square Park. They had a large selection of sandwiches and wraps, and I decided on Chicken Cordon Bleu hero sandwich ($8.99) with a Coke ($1.99).
The sandwich contained a fresh fried chicken breast topped with Swiss cheese and ham and then broiled for a few minutes to combine the ingredients. Inside they put a little mustard to add to the complexity of the flavors. You really felt like you were eating a piece of Chicken Cordon Bleu.
Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich
My friend ordered an empanada and bought some snacks that we enjoyed after our lunch. The deli has a wide variety of grocery items. She also enjoyed her lunch.
The sandwich was delicious and packed with flavor.
Continuing down Eighth Avenue I saw this flag outside one of the bars on the window and I thought it was so profound but true. We are forgetting the freedom choice, expression and the right to live our lives is available to everyone. This is what makes us American.
I saw this posted outside a bar during ‘Pride Week’ and it’s nice to see people expressing their opinion. I think we are forgetting this.
At the very edge of the neighborhood on the corner of Eighth Avenue and 14th Street, technically the border with the Village is the Museum of Illusions at 77 Eighth Avenue.
At the very end of the block bordering Chelsea with Greenwich Village is the Museum of Illusions at 77 Eighth Avenue
It is a perfect museum for a day out with the kids but it is a bit on the pricey side. I had visited the museum at the beginning of last summer and here are some of the things that I enjoyed at the museum.
There are a lot of brain teasers and mirrors to throw you off or add to the display to entertain you. The optical illusions will test your mind and your senses. There are titled rooms to test your balance and your sense of sight, mirrored rooms to show location and reaction and small displays to show size and distance.
Me at the Museum of Illusions
Admittingly it is a very small museum of the steep price of admission ($24.00 for an adult) and you will only be in the museum for about an hour. The problem with this museum is that once you experience it and if they do not change the displays, there is no reason to go back. The small displays can be experienced on two floors.
The Tilted Room display
The afternoon I was here, the museum was packed with summer campers and school aged kids who dominated the place and it is so small that it was hard to maneuver around the museum. Still it was a very interesting museum to experience once as it will test the power of and exercise your brain.
The Clone Table
Me in the Vertical Room
The Illusions Gallery
I found the museum more geared towards children but visiting it once as an adult was a lot of fun. You have to visit the museum at least once because it is very interesting.
My last part of the neighborhood I visited was my walk down Seventh Avenue. Just like Eighth Avenue, these are really commercial blocks and the architecture reflects that. Mostly office buildings and newer apartments. Here and there on the Avenue there were things that stuck out and some interesting little restaurants and shops along the way. The street art was very interesting.
Looking down Seventh Avenue from West 23rd Street
One of my favorite restaurants in the neighborhood sits right on the border of Seventh Avenue and West 23rd Street in the middle of the Chelsea neighborhood, Chelsea Papaya at 171 West 23rd Street. I love coming here for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the best part is you can get all this delicious food 24 hours a day.
Chelsea Papaya at 171 West 23rd Street
I swear that Chelsea Papaya has been part of this neighborhood since the 1970’s. I have passed this place a million times and never stopped in to eat. Recently when I was walking around the rim of Manhattan for ‘The Great Saunter” walk, I needed an early start, and this place opens at 5:00am (please check their website for the changing hours).
Chelsea Papaya at 171 West 23rd Street specials
For breakfast that morning I knew I would need to load up on carbohydrates so I ordered a Breakfast platter. I had four very large pancakes with a side of bacon and two scrambled eggs ($7.95) with a medium Papaya drink. It was the best breakfast on this rare cool summer morning.
The pancakes had a nice malted taste to them and were crisp and fluffy. The eggs were sizzling hot off the grill with the flavor of clarified butter. It was quite a large breakfast and it lasted me for most of the morning and afternoon.
The breakfast is over-sized here and filling. Bring your appetite.
The pancakes and eggs here are delicious
Yum!
The only problem that I had with breakfast was that you could not eat inside and I had to eat at one of the filthy outdoor tables that were available. They looked like the homeless had slept at them all night.
Chelsea Papaya is open all night
For dinner, I tried the Fried Chicken Sandwich and it was much better in the dining area. The Fries had just come out the fryer along with the Chicken Cutlet. Even though it had the shredded lettuce and tomato on top, they seemed much fresher on the second trip. I really enjoyed the meal. It had been after class and I really needed a good dinner.
The Chicken Sandwich and fries are cooked to order here
The Chicken Sandwich #4 Special at Chelsea Papaya
The one thing about Seventh Avenue is the interesting street art tucked here and there all over the Avenue. I love the fact that New York City feels like an open air museum with creative works here and there. The first one of this apple core that lined the wall outside a shop in neighborhood.
Mike Maka is a painter and multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans large-scale murals, canvas works, illustration, and sculpture. Mike is based in between New York City and Melbourne, Australia. (Artist’s website).
The one local restaurant that has stood out the me is the Sleeping Cat at 160 Seventh Avenue. This small bakery/cafe has a lot of freshly baked items and sandwiches and it extremely popular both with the locals and the NYU students as I passed here a lot on my way to campus a year ago.
I look forward to giving it a try in the future. I loved some of the items on display.
The pastries at the Sleeping Cat
Here and there tucked into corners of buildings and on walls and poles is the most interesting street art. I always notice it at the corner of my eyes and several of them stood out to me when walking around Lower Chelsea.
I thought this was a fun piece of street art. You do not see too many snowmen on skateboards
This street artist I have seen all over the City and has some of the most amazing work. I think the designs are so unusual and the geometrics are amazing. This is just one example of this graffiti artist’s work.
This graffiti artist’s work I have seen all over Manhattan. This was on a building on Seventh Avenue.
On the corner of Seventh Avenue and West 21st Street, there is a series of graffiti art along an abandoned restaurant that I thought was interesting.
A unique homage to many genres
Old Hanna Barbara characters
Snoopy and Mr. Peanut
The Barbadok’ from the horror film
These will disappear when the restaurant reopens one day but for now you can look at them and make your own interpretation.
Another great restaurant that I enjoy is J’s Pizza at 96 Seventh Avenue, which has some of the best pizza and entree specials in the neighborhood. I used to come here a lot at night after classes at NYU and everything was so reasonable and delicious. It is one of those hidden gems for both lunch and dinner.
J’s Pizza at 96 Seventh Avenue
I have been coming to J’s Pizza for many years and had eaten here in the past after viewing the Halloween Parade in October. I just rediscovered it again when I started grad school in the neighborhood and forgot how good the food was when I dined here. The pizza slices are generous in size and their marinara and pizza sauces you can tell are freshly made and not from a can.
The sauces for all the meals here from the pizza, to the spaghetti and meatballs to the sauce that is the side to the many rolls and calzones is well spiced and has so much flavor to it. It really makes the dishes.
J’s Pizza counter is lined with pizzas and calzones
The wonderful garlic knots, Chicken and Pepperoni Rolls and Grandma Pizza
The Chicken, Sausage and Pepperoni rolls and fresh Grandma Pizza
The Tuesday Night Special is Spaghetti & Meatballs for $9.00
I finished my walk of the neighborhood in the early evening when it finally started to cool down. All the restaurants and coffee shops started to fill up with people starting dinner or going for a drink after work.
I headed to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden for a Summer Solstice concert to celebrate the longest day of the year. This was a ‘Members Only’ special event and I was looking forward to cooling off and relaxing on the lawn to listen to Jazz Music. So I took the subway from West 23rd Street into the heart of Brooklyn and joined the other members at the front gate.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden at 990 Washington Avenue was open late for the concert and watching the sunset in the park
The gardens were in full bloom and members were walking around the Cherry Blossom Lawn. Some people were sneaking a snack on the lawn or having a drink. Some were ordering food from the carts and just relaxing on their blankets. It was a nice night to be out as it cooled down when it got dark.
It was a nice night to walk around
The Garden set the bar up on both sides of the Gardens so that members could buy a cocktail or a snack. This made it easier to get something to eat (some nights you are not allowed food in the gardens except at the cart or in the restaurant inside the gardens).
The bar just outside the Visitors center
The menu at the bar that night
Waiting for the concert to begin
As it got dark the concert began. It really was not what I expected and being so tired from all the walking, I headed home around 9:30pm. It was going to be a two hour trip home. I was lucky that I made both the subway and the bus home as they were both waiting for me when I got to both of them.
It was a really good walk around the City and get the pulse of a neighborhood. Chelsea just keeps evolving and will change even more in the next ten years as the public housing in the neighborhood gets torn down for mixed income housing. The neighborhood will keep changing.
One of the nicest things about being a member of museums in New York City is when they have the ‘Private Members Nights’, where the museums are open after hours for the membership only. The funny thing about these nights are that the museums seem busier on these nights than they would when the museums are open during the day to the general public.
What also is difficult is when two major museums have their Members Night on the same night. I had to do a lot of coordinating to go to both museums. What made it work is that both museums closed at different times with The Met closing at 10:00pm. I timed it perfectly.
Members Night at the MoMA ‘Behind the Flowers’ for the Hilma af Klint exhibition
The theme that evening was based on the Hilma af Klint exhibition
Going this evening took a lot of planning as I had to teach in the morning and cut the lawn on the afternoon. I was already exhausted by the time I left for the City at 4:00pm. Even on this gloomy afternoon, the weather held and it was a nice evening.
The area around the museum was in full bloom that early evening
The event opened early at the MoMA with their event from 6:00pm-9:00pm and the Met went from 7:00pm-10:00pm so I was able to enjoy both with a lot of walking in between. It was worth it as I was able to see several exhibitions on my bucket list before they closed. With work and finals, it had been tough to visit both of them.
People were enjoying conversation and cocktails when I arrived at the MoMA that evening.
I decided to start my evening at the Sculpture Garden on the first floor. The weather was cloudy but still it was a warm evening. People were conversing near the fountains and listening to music. The lines for the cash bar never let up and they were about thirty deep the whole time.
The Sculpture Garden at the MoMA
While I walked around the gardens and fountains I noticed a lot of the art that they were featuring was really unique, some of which I had not seen before.
The gardens with the poppies in bloom
This beautiful mosaic of a octopus did not have a name
This metal artwork was towards the back of the sculpture garden
The artwork makes quite a statement in the sculpture garden
I watched this interactive art that I had seen at the last Members Night
I love this interactive art in this video
I love watching this video sculpture moving around. I had seen it on my last visit and thought it was very interesting. I then moved upstairs to see the Hilma af Klint exhibition that would be closing that weekend. The galleries were jammed with members who wanted to see the artist’s work. She had some interesting pieces that looked more like a naturalist works.
You could barely move in the galleries it was so crowded. I was not able to get as close to the works as I wanted but I wanted to share from the exhibition the pieces I liked most.
Flowers and an Apple
These interesting drawings on mushrooms
I thought this set of drawings on dandelion’s and strawberries was interesting
As I finished the exhibition, I watched from above other members milling around the second floor
I then moved to the next exhibition ‘Pirouette: Turning Points in Design’, the use of design and concept in everyday life. I thought this exhibition was interesting because it described how we look at functionality and the reasons why things are designed for a specific purpose and then can take on new meaning.
Of the many fascinating and famous items in the exhibition that I saw two well known works stood out to me. The first was the “I ❤️ New York” logo and its development in the 1970’s to be one of the most famous tourism campaigns in history
The Milton Glazer campaign for the “I ❤️ New York” campaign which saved New York tourism and is still used today. What was sad was the creator died during COVID in 2020.
The sign on the development of the design
The other stood out for its simplicity and fame was the development of M & M’s. This simple candy was a result of Forrest Mars seeing the rations of candy abroad of chocolate coated in a shell so it would not melt on the battlefield. With some experimentation, he created the modern M& M.
M & M display by Forrest Mars
I thought the whole museum would be open that night but it was just the two floors plus the gift shop and gardens. Since I saw everything at the MoMA already and it was around 7:45pm, off I ran out the back door to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Private Members Night.
Walking up Fifth Avenue at dusk
Walking up Fifth Avenue at dusk
The walk up Fifth Avenue to The Metropolitan Museum
The Met at night is quite dazzling
The entrance to The Met in the evening
Looking down Fifth Avenue at night
The entrance in the Rotunda was filled with fresh flowers and members chatting away. I even saw some of the members I had seen at the MoMA earlier.
The floral arrangements were spectacular
The beauty of the Rotunda in the evening
Maybe because these Members Nights were on a Tuesday evening, they both did not seem as crowded as they had been in the past. The museum was crowded but not as crowded as the past two Member’s Nights. I think that I arrived at 8:00pm most people were starting to leave. What was nice was that the MoMA night went until 9:00pm and The Met Night went until 10:00pm so it gave me the time to run through both museums.
I started my tour of The Met in the Greek Galleries looking at the Cycladic Art. I always loved the looks of these works.
I love the Egyptian Galleries. I have been coming here since 1973 and have loved them ever since.
I love the ancient hieroglyphics
For the last two Members Nights, the Members Bar was in the Temple of Dendur. It is always so well lit and the music was wonderful. It is a nice way to end the evening.
The Temple of Dendur lit for the evening
The Temple of Dendur was the perfect place to relax and have a cocktail
The crowds were rather large at the bar that evening
The Passion fruit cocktail was the specialty drink of the evening
The Passion fruit cocktail was well worth the money
It was nice to just sit back with the other members and relax and listen to the music. After a long week at work, the sounds of jazz with a nice drink and good conversation is a way to enjoy the evening.
I had a renewed energy after being in the Egyptian Galleries for an hour and I headed into the American Wing to tour some of the exhibits around the main court.
Only the outside of the American Wing was open
I decided to see the new Costume exhibition “Superfine”, an exhibition of Black Men’s clothing through the ages from pre-slavery to current times. The exhibition was a discussion on attitudes, tastes, tailoring and how the Black style influences fashion.
Clothing and accessories I admired in the exhibition
Clothing styles I thought were interesting in the exhibition
The evening drew to a close and I was exhausted running from work to come into the City to walk from one museum to another and then walk back to the bus station. Still I got to see a lot in both museums.
The Rotunda at the end of the evening
The fountain dancing as I left
It was such a beautiful that I decided to take the long walk back to Port Authority via Second Avenue. I wanted to see if my favorite Chinese restaurant was still open. I was getting hungry but at almost 10:00pm not much was open. The Chinese restaurant had just closed for the evening. Since COVID, the ‘City that never sleeps’ is going to bed early.
As I was walking down Second Avenue, I came across a very reasonable pizzeria named Centro Pizzeria & Restaurant at 1469 Second Avenue. All I had to do is look at the pizza cases and I could not decide on what I wanted to order.
Centro Pizzeria and Restaurant at 1469 Second Avenue
My review on Diningona ShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.con:
The selection of pizzas in the pizza case
The Cheese and Pepperoni pizzas had just come out of the oven and were the freshest of the pies. I noticed the Pepperoni pizza was loaded with pepperoni and I decided I had to try it. The pizza here is excellent.
My dinner that night
The Pepperoni slice was loaded with slices of pepperoni and cheese
The red sauce which is the base of the pizza gave the Cheese slice lots of flavor
Yum!
It really was a nice walk through Midtown with all the lights on and a nice crowd of people walking their dogs in the various neighborhoods. Walking down the streets of the Upper East Side is really a nice walk and the classic New York experience. These Members Nights are a wonderful way to spend the evening.
Admission: Adults $30.00/Seniors & Disabled People $22.00/Students $17.00/Members and Caregivers with disabled person Free/NYC residents and NY, NJ and CT students: Pay as you Wish
Admission: Admission: Adults $30.00/Seniors & Disabled People $22.00/Students $17.00/Members and Caregivers with disabled person Free/Children Under 16 are free/Members Free/Guests of Members are $5.00.
I am ready to go back to the Staten Island Zoo and have a little conversation with Staten Island Chuck. Since he said he did not see his shadow and Spring is coming, we have had six weeks of freezing and cloudy days. I have had to bundle up just to get my yard work done and my lawn needs a good cutting but it has been too cold to do much.
Today was the first day that it finally reached 60 degrees and like everyone else, I wanted to spend it outside. I finished classes at 11:00am and let my students out early to enjoy their Easter/Passover weekend.
I wanted to decompress myself so I headed to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. I wanted to see the Cherry Blossoms and then see Daffodil Hill, one of the most impressive flower displays in New York City. I was not disappointed.
The entrance on Ocean Parkway to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
Tulips lining the pathway in the front of the gardens
The tulips lined the walls and paths along side the entrance
When I got to the Rose Gardens, the plants finally looked they were coming alive after a long slumber. None of the roses were remotely blooming but the tulips as and other flowers were.
The tulips and daffodils in the Cranford Rose Garden
The Cranford Rose Gardens is truly magnificent in June when all the roses are in bloom but for now, the beds that lined the sides of these gardens had tulips and daffodils in full bloom.
The Cherry Blossoms on the main lawn had not bloomed yet so they had about another week. It had been so cold out the trees probably did not want to spout. Different species bloom at different times and some trees had blossomed and the petals had come down with the rain while others especially in the Japanese Gardens were in full bloom.
The Cherry Blossom lawn just before the blooming
The first wave of blossoms
The Japanese Gardens were packed with people trying to film and photograph the gardens. It started to get a little obnoxious but I guess all of us were doing it. It was just so beautiful to look at that afternoon.
Entering the Japanese Gardens
The blooming of the Japanese Gardens
The gardens were really crowded with the warm weather
The Japanese Pond
The full Japanese Gardens
Walking along the paths of the Japanese Gardens
As I left the Japanese Gardens, I entered the Magnolia Trees Gardens and Daffodil Hill. Because of all the rain and the cold weather (it had been in the 30’s and 40’s up until today), they both reached their peak early and all that rain did not help.
Walking the pathways between the gardens
The gardens though were still in bloom. Just past their peak but still picturesque and the smells of the flowers were wonderful.
The Magnolia and Dogwood trees just past their peak
The Magnolia Gardens are breathtaking this time of year
The gardens in full bloom
Walking along the paths
The pathways in bloom
The array of colors along the paths
Some of the trees along the paths were at peak blooming
All the visitors were filming and taking pictures
The gardens got more crowded as time went on
Some of the trees had such vibrant colors
The Magnolias and Dogwoods all in bloom
The pathway was filled with visitors taking pictures
The Magnolia Garden sits just across the pathway from Daffodil Hill, one of the most spectacular displays of Mother Nature
The over thousand daffodils on Daffodil Hill
Daffodil Hill is one of the main reasons why I join the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It is one of the most beautiful displays of Mother Nature in the garden. Hundreds of different species of Daffodils grow along this hill and for two weeks out of the year this display of flowers surpasses my expectations.
The beautiful display of yellows, whites and oranges come to life each Spring
The mix of pine and flowers
The old oak tree sits as a catalyst for this display
Follow its gracious branches along the hill
The beauty of the hill
I just love looking at all angles of this garden and from every point. I never get tired of its beauty and like to sit on the bench opposite the hill and just the flowers away in the wind. I always look forward to seeing these bloom every Spring. I got to see this just after the peak.
The Lotus Pools
I then walked down the stairs to the Lotus Pools. It will be several weeks until these flower but the paths along side the pools were line with tulips in an array of colors.
The tulips were in full bloom when I was there. Mine are just waking up
The various colors of the tulips
In the middle of these colorful displays and between the pools of the historic Fish Fountain with its amusing spouts.
The historic Fish Fountain between the pools
The graceful sounds of the fountain flowing
After walking through my favorite sections of the gardens, I decided to explore the back paths of the gardens which were just starting to come into bloom. As I passed the various gardens up and down the paths, patrons started to relax on the lawns and just soak up the blue skies, sunshine and the 68 degree weather. It just got nicer as the day wore on.
The Children’s Garden was in the process of being planted and coming into bloom
The entrance to the Children’s Garden
The Watershed
The watershed
The Christmas ferns along the paths
The Christmas fern sign
The Bluebells by the Children’s Garden were coming into bloom
The first species of roses started to appear and I was lucky to get this picture in
The Rock Garden’s flowers were just starting to bloom here
People just relaxed by the watershed lawns and soaked up the sunshine while they talked
The path back to the Cherry Blossoms
The full array of Cherry Blossoms should be appearing in the next week or two and will be in bloom for about a week. For now because of the cold weather, the first of the blooms are appearing.
There are different species of Cherry trees that bloom at different stages of the season
Everyone was elbowing everyone for the pictures
The plants were all out in bloom on the warm day
It seems even the flowers were awoke with this nice day and came out of their slumber as well. It was such a nice afternoon around the gardens and people seemed in a better mood. People appeared relaxed and refreshed by Mother Nature’s display of beauty. This will continue for the next couple of months as all the flowers around the gardens start to bloom.
I returned to the Gardens on Mother’s Day to crowds I have not seen since Member’s Nights to see the Bluebell flowers at the peak of bloom. I can tell that in about three days they will be gone.
The amazing Bluebells
The flower display has grown over the years
The sign for the flowers
After my tour of the gardens, I skipped the over-priced lunches at the cafe in the gardens and headed down Washington Avenue to Bahn Mi Place at 824b Washington Avenue for a sandwich. The food here is wonderful and very reasonable.
The flowers in bloom
Just as impressive as the Daffodil Hill
The gardens were breathtaking this afternoon but this will not last.
I ordered on of their Pork Chop Bahn Mai sandwiches and I forgot how good they are here. The pork was marinated in soy and Hoisin sauces and then cooked to perfection.
The Pork Chop Bahn Mai with fresh vegetables
The sandwiches here are excellent
Yum!
The sandwiches here are high quality between the fresh chewy buns and the crisp vegetables. It was a wonderful lunch and the perfect way to end my visit to the gardens.
What’s nice about Bahn Mi Place is that you can eat in on the small tables inside or on a warm day, take it to the seating outside the Brooklyn Museum and just people watch. It is the perfect afternoon in Brooklyn on a warm day. I relaxed and enjoyed this afternoon after a rough week at work.
Even the fountains were amazing that day!
On the evening of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, the Gardens had a special event to celebrate the occasion.
The special Members Summer Solstice event
The event included late night walks through the Gardens and then a special musical presentation entitled ‘Afropneuma’, an African jazz sounding concert.
The concert took place on the Cherry Blossom lawn
At sunset, they started the concert with a large audience. The musical performance was enjoyable but lawn and like most people, my 9:30pm, I started the long trip home. It had been a long evening.
They set up a bar for drinks and snacks
The bar menu
We watched the concert from the Cherry Blossom Lawn
It was a very pleasant evening and a nice place to relax and enjoy the sunset.
The Garden started a series of special ‘Jazz Nights’ for members to come after the Gardens had closed for the dining. The first one on July 3rd got rained out with an impending storm approaching. So as soon as the rained stopped about a half an hour later, many of us who stayed enjoyed the cooler evening and walked around the gardens and enjoyed ourselves.
Walking around the Lilly Pond pools
The Water Lillys are ready to bloom
The Water Lillys ready to bloom
I decided to walk around the enclosed gardens starting with the Bonsai Garden display.
The Bonsai Garden display is enclosed
I really admire the care that goes into these trees. The Gardens do a wonderful job maintains and displaying these beautiful trees.
The Bonsai
The beautifully maintained trees take years to get this way
The trees on display
The trees on display
Enjoying the Bonsai Gardens
I next toured the enclosed Rainforest and Desert displays. These enclosed gardens are most impressive in the winter months when they offer relief from the cold. In the summer when it rains, it offers refuge from the elements.
Walking through the enclosed rain forest
The enclosed Rain Forest
Walking through all the shrubs and flowers
The Desert Display with cactus
Admiring all the flowers in the tropical room of plants
After the rain stopped (it only rained for twenty minutes), we were able to tour the grounds and enjoy all the flower beds. I ended the evening admiring a rainbow.
Admiring the Rose Garden fountain just south of the Cherry Blossom lawn.
A beautiful rainbow in the gardens ended the evening.
On the way back to Port Authority, I stopped into Upside Pizza at 812 Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. The pizza there is a bit pricy but you do get a very big slice.
Right after the Metropolitan Museum of Art had their private members night, ‘Met After Hours’, the Museum of Modern Art countered with their event. Neither museum has the whole museum open but at least at The Met there is more than one bar open and they keep two of the restaurants open for patrons so you can have dinner at the museum.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) kept only two floors open and had one very crowded bar open that evening. Still it was nice to visit the museum after hours and walk through the halls.
The front of the Museum of Modern Art at 11 West 53rd Street
Looking down on the bar crowd as I walked to the second floor
Listening to the music play with the artwork
The first piece of art I saw was ‘Cadence’ by artist Otobong Nkanga. This colorful and impressive piece took up the entire second floor atrium and the interesting part of the work was that it was interactive and you could walk through the display. It looked like a volcano had exploded and the rocks that spewed out you could walk around.
The work ‘Cadence’ by artist Otobong Nkanga
The write up on the this interesting work
The work took up the second floor atrium
The rest of the second floor of the museum was closed that evening so I made my way to the fourth and fifth floor to visit the galleries.
There was no special exhibition on the fourth floor so I stopped room by room to admire the art. Sprinkled amongst the paintings and sculptures, the museum had placed clips of movies, a few of them silent films. One of my favorites was showing, George Meles’s ‘Trip to the Moon’.
George Meles’s silent film ‘Trip to the Moon
The write up of the piece
The YouTube video on the movie “A Trip to the Moon”
I had first seen this film in high school and had fallen in love with the elaborate sets and the campy storyline. I never got how they thought they were going to get home. Still the movie is fun to watch and you think to seventy years later to movies like ‘2001 Space Odyssey’ and ‘Apollo 13’ and even the footage of really landing on the moon and think how far we have come.
Roaming around the Picasso gallery
Then I walked around the Contemporary Galleries and admired all the works by Picasso and Brancusi. Everyone else was still down at the bar on the first floor so I had these galleries to myself for the first forty-five minutes. I quietly walked and admired all the works.
The contemporary gallery
The works ‘Fish’ and ‘Bird in Space’
Brancusi’s works especially ‘Bird in Space’ I had studied in my Art History class at Michigan State University and zI had admired them for a long time. I had forgotten that versions of them were at the MoMA.
‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’ by Piet Mondrian
The signage
Then I passed ‘Broadway Boogie Woogie’, another work I had studied in college. It is amazing how many great works were at this museum. I just liked the colors and whimsy of this painting. Then I walked through the Claude Monet gallery where the famous ‘Water Lillie’s’ paintings were located.
The gallery dedicated to Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’
The signage
Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lillies’
I love these immense murals either their beautiful colors and calmness to the painting.
I then turned the corner and came across Picasso’s ‘Girl before the Mirror’
I had forgotten that this painting was here and I stopped for a while and just admired it. I loved the simplicity of the idea but enjoyed its bold colors and crazy cubism to it. I have been attracted to this painting since I was a kid when my mother took me to the Picasso Retrospect here when I was a freshman in high school.
The signage for the painting
As the night wore on I visited the floors that were open and it was only two floors, four and five and the second atrium that were open so I visited the bar area when I finished with the other floors.
The prices here were just as expensive as the earlier Member’s Night at The Met and the selection was not as nice, so I bypassed it. I just watched everyone from a distance.
I just enjoy watching everyone having a good
time. I makes the evening even more special.
Watching the crowd while admiring the beautiful interactive art. This work kept moving around to the music in the background
The painting would move in different directions to the music
It had been a short but relaxing evening and got my mind off everything between work and home and I guess I needed a change of pace to shake me out of it.
After a short visit to the gift shop, I left the museum and headed home. As I turned the corner past the museum, I stopped to admire the lights of Seventh Avenue. I sometimes forget how breathtaking Manhattan can be at night.
Seventh Avenue at night around the corner from the MoMA
I took a short walk around the neighborhood, thinking about where I could stop for a snack. None of the restaurants at the museum were open the evening and they had nothing at the bar.
I remembered a wonderful hamburger/ hot dog place near Eighth Avenue, Lucky’s Famous Burgers at 370 West 52nd Street.
I settled on the ‘Double Dog’ special meal with two dressed hot dogs and a large size of French Fries with a large Coke. It was enough food for two people. The hot dogs here are fantastic and the French Fries are cooked to order. The meal just hit the spot and really cheered me up as had the visit to the MoMA. It was the perfect meal to cap off the evening.
The Doubledogs with French Fries meal
The delicious twin hot dogs
They were nicely decorated
What a way to end the evening
It was quick and relaxing evening and shook away the blues of the past days of gloomy weather and some of the long nights of grading papers at work. A pleasant night at the MoMA can really cheer you up!
mywalkinmanhattan 