In honor of Small Business Saturday, I am featuring wonderful reasonable restaurants in New York City.
Now the pizzeria is known as 109th Street Pizzeria
The pizza here is delicious.
*Since the pandemic, Make & Bake Pizza has changed names and owners and is now known as 109th Street Pizzeria. The restaurant has also been renovated since my last review.
I came across Make & Bake Pizzeria when I was visiting East Harlem for my walking project, “MywalkinManhattan” and I needed a snack. I had already visited Moe’s Grocery a few doors down for a ‘Chopped Cheese’ and I needed a slice of pizza.
I followed the school kids from the two schools across the street into the pizzeria and they really seemed to like the pizza here. Because the kids are from the housing projects that surround the school and this part of Second and Third Avenues, the prices at the restaurants in the area are very reasonable. Here the prices are more than reasonable, they are cheap.
A slice of cheese pizza here is $1.00, a soda and water are $1.00…
I started walking the streets of East Harlem after a long day in the Soup Kitchen. They keep me very busy there and I had to work the busy bread station. It can very harried if there are any sweets such as pastries and doughnuts to give out. I was worn out but still carried on.
I took the number six subway uptown to 110th Street and started my day with lunch at the Blue Sky Deli (Haiji’s) at 2135 First Avenue again for another chopped cheese sandwich. I am beginning to love these things. For five dollars and my budget on the project, it just makes sense. Plus, it is nice to sit in Jefferson Park and just relax and watch the kids play soccer while I am eating. I don’t know if it was the sandwich or all the walking but I had stomach cramps for the rest of the day. It was a long day of walking.
Blue Sky Deli is now known as Chopped Cheese Delicious Deli at 2135 First Avenue (this is what is looks like now
There is nothing like one of their Chopped Cheese’s and I try to visit every time I am in the area.
The Chopped Cheese with a Welsh’s Grape Soda makes the best meal
Yum!
I started the day by retracing my steps on 110th and looking over all the housing projects that line this part of First Avenue. I looked along the long line that is First Avenue and made sure to walk this part of the street as quick as possible. It does not start to get sketchy until about 105th Street but still you want to get through as fast as possible. Walking eight blocks across and back is impossible to do in one day even walking fast so I broke it up into two and a half separate days.
Along most of these blocks I was retracing what I saw along the Avenues and there is a lot of new construction and renovating along the way. A lot of buildings are being sandblasted to their original beauty and along the way there are little surprises along the way to discover. I just wanted to let readers know that since I had already walked First Avenue and the side streets on both sides, when I reached First Avenue when walking the streets, I did not cross the street and stayed on the west side of the avenue.
Most of the side streets I had walked already in some form along the way of walking the Avenues and took time out revisit many of the parks and restaurants that I had traveled previously. There are still many gems in this neighborhood that you should take time to visit. In some parts of the neighborhood, I would suggest going during the day when many other people are around. Even as safe as Manhattan has gotten over the years, I still look over my shoulder all the time and watch everyone no matter what neighborhood I am in.
I made several walks through the housing projects all over the neighborhood. You can really understand the complexity of the projects by walking through them as many as times as I did. It really is a different life. Sometimes I get the impression that being piled up in one complex is not good for anyone. The yards are not properly taken care of and playgrounds that are not kept in great shape.
Yet there are signs that residents have made it their own though. I walked through the Dewitt Clinton, Franklin, Lehman and Washington Carver Housing complexes and here and there are raised beds for fruits, vegetables and flowers. Some residents have taken it upon themselves to clean up the garbage in the playgrounds and paint the equipment and benches. Some make their own repairs in the play areas and then stand guard, watching what the kids are doing. I discovered this as I walked through the Washington Houses three times to complete 108th, 107th and 106th by crisscrossing the open-air park in between the complex. People kept looking at me walking through park.
Along the way, I discovered many small community gardens tucked between buildings such as the Neighbors of Vega Baja Garden at 109th between First and Second Avenues and the Humaniano Community Garden at 108th between First and Second Avenues. These small patches of green make the block. Hidden behind fences, I can see that the neighborhood puts a lot of pride into landscaping them and planting them. Sometimes they are open to the public but I just walk by because no one is there.
Street art along a wooden fence at East 109th Street just off Second Avenue. I thought this was brilliant and very original. There is a real message in this.
Street art on the fence of East 109th Street just off Second Avenue
The sun up close
The writing on the wall
I was back at Make & Bake Pizza at 1976 Third Avenue at 108th Street (now 109 Pizza as of March 2025 for lunch again (See my review on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). For a dollar this is great pizza, and they give you a nice size slice. The restaurants in this are around the three local schools offer menus with reasonable prices catering to the kids and their families so take time to explore them. Mr. Moe’s is right down the road, and I can still taste that chopped cheese sandwich.
Now the pizzeria is called 109th Pizzeria and offers the same great prices as before
Make & Bake Pizza at 1976 Third Avenue (now 109th Street Pizzeria in 2025)
I also saw some of my favorite ‘street art’ murals on these blocks. Between 109th and 107th there are several that I saw. This ‘Spiritual Art’ work has almost an Aztec/Mayan look to it and its use of color and motion are so detailed. Take time to look at these works of art.
Some are ‘tags’ while others the artist was trying to tell a story. Look to the side of the buildings and the sides of schools. You might see some on the sliding doors of businesses. There is a lot of talent here. If there was only a gallery for these kids.
Street Art at 162 East 104th Street
The doorway of the building at the entrance of 162 East 104th Street
There was some new street art along East 104th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. I had never noticed it before it might be brand new but I thought it was brilliant.
The work on East 104th Street
The painting on the opposite side of the doorway
A mosaic on the side a wall near Lexington Avenue
As you travel to the corner of Lexington and 107th, the neighborhood starts to change again once you pass the Franklin Housing Project. The buildings around this area are being fixed up and sandblasted back to their original beauty and new restaurants and shops are opening bringing a little life back to the area. By Hope Community Inc., there are interesting portraits of Latino Cultural leaders. The detailed portrait of Pedro Pietri by James de la Vega is interesting and take time to admire the work.
Pedro Pietri by Artist James de la Vega (now hidden by an outdoor restaurant)
Mr. De La Vega is an American artist of Puerto Rican decent who lives in New York City. He is known for his street and muralist art. He is a graduate of Cornell University with a BFA in Fine Arts.
My first day walking the streets, I made it to the corner of 105th and First Avenue by the beginning of nightfall and decided to stop there. I was passing the East River Houses again and there were some shady characters walking around so I decided to finish 105th and rounded 104th Street for my next stop in the neighborhood and relaxed in the Central Park Conservatory at 1233 Fifth on the corner of East 104th and Fifth Avenue for the rest of the evening. My feet were killing me at that point.
Central Park Conservatory gates at 1233 Fifth Avenue
My next trip up to the neighborhood was June 21st, the third Anniversary of ‘MywalkinManhattan.com’. I can’t believe it has been three years since I started walking the island of Manhattan.
The Central Park Conservatory in the Summer of 2025
I still remember my first day walking in Marble Hill on Father’s Day 2015. I honestly thought I would finish in one summer and here I am at 96th Street on the East Side with the rest of the island ahead of me.
The French Garden Fountain at the Central Park Conservatory Garden
The newly renovated French Gardens at the Central Park Conservatory Gardens
Street art along East 105th Street that really impressed me between Lexington and Madison Avenues. This had not been there on my last trip. These works were touching and very creative. The artist presented work that comes from the heart.
On the wall along East 105th Street
Painting along East 105th Street
I started at 96th Street and walked the length of it again from the park to the river. It was sad that the tulips along the river had died by the time I got back. They had been a colorful display by the path entering the river. Even the flowers at the Park Avenue Mall at Park and 97th Street started to change. Spring was giving way to the summer months and you could see the difference in the plants and trees. Between the plantings on the streets and second stage of flowers in Central Park, June was here.
Park Avenue around East 100th Street
You begin to notice distinctions in the grid pattern of the neighborhood block by block. By East 97th Street, you will see a real change. The Metropolitan Hospital, the Department of Sanitation and the Washington Housing projects set almost a border between the Upper East Side and Spanish Harlem once you pass Third Avenue.
Along the border of 97th Street on the grounds of the projects, the residents have set up a series of vegetable and fruit gardens and have done some landscaping that have some character to the lawns of the housing complex. I give the residents credit for their creativity, and I will have to revisit the site over the summer months to see how it turns out. Also along the street is the St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Catholic Church, which is the only one of its kind in NYC. Stop and look at the detail of the church.
By 99th Street, the Washington Carver Houses start to dominate the middle of the neighborhood and Mt. Sinai cuts the neighborhood between the Upper East Side from Spanish Harlem to the east to Park Avenue. I tried once again to visit the Martha Stewart Garden in the Washington Carver complex at Madison Avenue and East 99th Street but again the gate was locked. At this point, it looked like it could have used a gardener to touch it up.
Martha Stewart Garden at Madison Avenue and East 99th Street
I continued the zigzag through the streets having crisscrossed again through the projects that I had walked a couple of times before. Between Park and Lexington Avenues as you round 101st Street, you can find some beautifully maintained brownstones and landscaped stairs with potted plants. It looks like something you would see in the village downtown.
The Park Avenue Mall at East 96th Street at night
This small break in the grid pattern shows what the neighborhood once was before the city leveled it for public housing. People are really moving back in this pocket of the neighborhood and fixing up the buildings. Here is where you will find the street art on the walls and fences. I saw a lot of the yarn art I saw uptown but am not sure if this was the same artist.
I had a funny incident with a young police officer at the 23rd Precinct on the corner of 102nd and Third Avenue. He was making a phone call and had just finished and really must have wondered what I was doing in the neighborhood. He took the time to yell a ‘hello’ to me and I just looked at him for a minute and said ‘hello’ back and waited for him to say something.
I guess my progressive glasses must have given me a professional look and he did not say anything else. He watched me walk through the Washington complex and strangely enough waited for me to come back and then watched me walk back up 102nd on my way back up to Fifth Avenue. I saw him staring at me again and I just nodded and smiled and kept walking. I didn’t know that me walking around was so interesting.
Between Park Avenue and Third Avenue up to where the projects start again by 109th Avenue and Madison and Fifth Avenue is where you are seeing where the neighborhood is starting to gentrify and people are starting to fix up the buildings and the new restaurants and shops are starting to pop up. There is a pizzeria on Lexington Avenue, Lexington Pizza, that I have on my bucket list (that closed in 2025).
Thank God I did not have to venture past 105th Street as it was getting darker. Between Second Avenue and First Avenue after 101st Street, I always felt that the people in the housing complexes were watching me. More like staring at me yet I could not catch them actually doing it. I guess I really stood out.
The street mural at West 104th Street by the Museum of the City of New York just popped up and I could not see the artist. I think it was created by Mount Sinai hospital around the corner
As I rounded 104th onto 105th Streets on First Avenue, I must have made quite the impression walking down the street. A group of guys, I swear to God, looked like they jumped when they saw me round the corner. When I had to walk back up the opposite side of the southern part of 105th Street and First Avenue to complete this part of the neighborhood, they completely disappeared. I swear I thought that they were going to gang up on me and jump me. They also gave me the strangest looks. It reminded me of walking on 155th Street by the river and what I saw up by the Dyckman Houses. I just don’t blend in.
I walked past the parks along 103rd and 105th Streets and brought a quick snack into the White Playground on 105th Street and relaxed for a bit just watching the parents watch the kids playing on the park equipment. I really like this park. They keep it in good shape and the parents in the neighborhood really seem to enjoy coming here.
When I was passing the subway station near 103rd Street right by the Washington Carver Houses, I had not noticed a street art portrait of Celia Cruz. The artist did a good job.
The Celia Cruz painting on 103rd Street
The work was done by artist James De La Vega in 2003
I walked past Maggie’s Garden at 1576 Lexington Avenue again on 101st Street and Lexington Avenue but the gate was locked on this day.
I ended the afternoon walking through Central Park and walking around the length of the reservoir and watch the joggers pass me by. If they only knew how much I had already walked that afternoon.
This sun was outside Maggie’s Garden the last time I visited.
It really made me think, looking at the crowd of joggers in the park and the people walking around the Central Park Conservatory that early part of the evening, how many of the people I passed that day venture past their part of neighborhood. These blocks have really been an eye-opener in urban planning gone wrong and how a neighborhood can be affected by the wrong decisions in building efforts. I saw a lot of people in the neighborhood trying to improve things on their own terms and take matters in their own hands.
The Harlem Meer at twilight in the Summer of 2025
I just don’t think that this part of Manhattan has to worry about getting too ‘hipster’ or ‘Yuppie’ unless the city sells off the projects and knocks them down. Even if they did, the neighborhood has its own character and I credit the people living there for making it that way.
The Harlem Meer in the Fall of 2024
There is no real way to explain it without you, the reader walking these streets yourself and soaking up the culture that is East Spanish Harlem. Do yourself a favor though, don’t dress like me
Happy Third Anniversary and a very Happy Father’s Day to my Dad!
Halloween 2024 on the Harlem Meer:
I had never seen the Harlem Meer so crowded before especially with lots of little kids. Families were enjoying the Halloween activities of pumpkin carving and painting, games and little treats that the kids got (I never saw anything as it was gone quickly). The festivities were just ending as I raced from class to get into the City before the Pumpkin Flotilla started at dusk. It was still light outside so I got to enjoy the exhibition inside the Dana Discovery Center, “The Gates”, on the history of the various gates people use to enter Central Park.
The Gates Exhibition at the Dana Exploratory Center
Then the fun began when the sun went down and the Halloween music started to play on the load speaker. Then two people canoeing started to paddle around the Harlem Meer Pond with lit Jack O’Lanterns following them. They started at dusk but when the sun finally went down, the real magic began.
For the next hour, one gentleman started paddling around the Meer then followed by another and they circled the pond for about an hour. Everyone was jockeying for space as we all tried to take the perfect pictures.
I stayed in the park taking pictures as the guys finished paddling around. The park had a almost spooky and mysterious look to it at sunset. I just wanted to get out of Central Park when it got dark. Too many bad memories of things happening. I headed over to the East Side
Please read my other blogs on walking East Harlem:
For checking out the street art and the community gardens in the neighborhood please walk the area. Things are changing so fast that you never know when something can disappear. The Community Gardens have their own hours depending on the season.
Whew! This was a two-day affair. I had already walked 5th and 1st Avenues and then all of FDR Drive and the Esplanade on other days. This left for me to walk the length of Madison, Park, Lexington, 3rd and 2nd Avenues from 96th Street to 110th Street. This meant 14 blocks back and forth, up and down the streets of the neighborhood. It was a long day of walking. I never realized how long it would take.
This part of Manhattan is a real mish-mush of everything. It transitions from East Harlem into the Upper-Upper East Side into Yorkville. Some others call it Carnegie Hill. It has it all. Housing projects, schools, a business district on Lexington, expensive brownstones, luxury apartments and hospitals that create the border between the two very different neighborhoods.
96th Street is the true border between the two areas but even that transitions as you get closer to the East River. A you get closer to 98th Street, you will see luxury housing complexes right across the street from some sketchy housing complexes right across the street (some people want the authenticity of the city).
This changes from block to block and if you follow the grid pattern, be prepared to walk through some housing complexes. I would only recommend that while the kids are exiting from after-school. Then the neighborhood is teeming with kids with their parents picking them up. Public or Private, adults are all over the place at the schools and it makes any neighborhood safe to walk around in as the police are out in many of these neighborhoods watching everyone.
Where you really see the difference in the neighborhood is between 97th Street and 99th Street on the East Side of Central Park. Some of the blocks are lined with beautiful and graceful brownstones and apartment buildings and then right across the street you can see where they leveled the neighborhood to building the housing projects that line long avenues and streets.
You start to see the changes as you walk down 97 Street and you reach the end of the Park Avenue Mall, a grassy knoll between the uptown and downtown grid which in the lower part of Park Avenue is planted with flowers and trees during the year. This gives way to the elevated railroad tracks after 97th Street and Park Avenue. As you get further up into the 100’s streets, Park Avenue is lined with housing projects. This is the failure of city planning where whole blocks in this neighborhood were leveled for public housing that never worked. This ‘slum clearance’ of the 1960’s would now be a fully gentrified neighborhood by now.
George Washington Carver Houses at 1475 Madison Avenue
Walking the Avenues, one sees how the neighbor changes. Every block is so different in this neighborhood. You can go from luxury housing to a public housing project just by walking the street. Also, if you walk while school is in session and when it gets out for the day, you should have no problem walking around the housing projects.
Pretty much everyone ignored me or just looked at me in the corner of their eyes and then put their heads down. It was such a strange attitude. In my opinion, people are people but the site of 6:4 preppie white guy walking around in a blue polo must have panicked people.
I saw this interesting mural at East 103rd Street near Lexington Avenue (I could not find the artist)
Along the way, there is so much so see and experience in this neighborhood. Small hole in the wall restaurants at very reasonable prices, great street art, small community gardens tucked between buildings, beautiful brownstones in a row and interesting views of Central Park and the East River as way of sidewalks. It is a diverse neighborhood that is getting harder to define as the whole island changes. Even in the short time I walked around Spanish Harlem, things were being knocked down and rebuilt.
It seems that every block had something to offer in some small way. Since I had done the borders of the neighborhood already and wanting to avoid First Avenue again (scary) with all the public housing, I started my trip up and down Second Avenue.
Hospitals seem to dominate in this section of the city with Mt. Sinai dominating the borders of Fifth to Madison from 96th to 101st and Metropolitan Hospital from 97th to 100th Street along Second Avenue. These large facilities create a wall on the neighborhood borders almost sheltering the Upper Upper East Side from Spanish Harlem. The neighborhood around them reflects the role the hospital plays around it with ever expanding buildings in the neighborhood and housing for the residents. I saw this up in Washington Heights with Columbia as they expand in the neighborhood.
Located off Second Avenue, the Marx Brothers have a small park named after them and it was busy after school with kids playing tag. The Marx Brothers were a famous team of brothers, Harpo, Groucho, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo, who were raised at 179 East 93rd Street. The brothers had many hits in the 1930’s and 40’s. The park has been recently part of a debate in the City on what connotates a park as a developer wants to build a tower here.
As you walk up Second Avenue, the area is dominated by a mix of brownstones and public housing. This is dominated by the huge Washington Housing complex that stretches from 97th Street to 104th from Second Avenue to Third Avenue. After school, this area was very lively with kids but boy did they give me looks when I walked through later in the week when I was doing the streets. Because of the way the grid works, you have to walk through the same paths. So, the same people kept seeing me walk through the complex.
As you pass the park and walk past the New York Health+Hospitals Emergency Room complex, there are a series of artworks that you should not miss along the walls of the hospital.
This mural was just outside the entrance to the hospital
The painting was created by artist Priscila De Carvalho
Artist Priscila De Carvalho is a Brazilian-born, queer American artist based in New York City. Known for her diverse artistic practice, she works in public art, painting, sculpture, and site-specific installations (Artist bio).
There was a series of photos along the Second Avenue wall entrance to the hospital that were very interesting that reflected the neighborhood.
The photo art on the Second Avenue wall outside the museum
A close up shot of the work
The display is called “Joy, Love and Resistance in El Barrio” partnered by Photographer and Artist Hiram Maristany and artist Miguel Luciano
Hiram Maristany was Nuyorican photographer and activist revered as the photographer of “Puerto Rican life in East Harlem.” He was an active member in his community and through this program Maristany met other young activists, including future Young Lords members (Wiki).
The installation represents the work of Mr. Maristany, who took these pictures around Spanish Harlem. It is a representation of how the neighborhood represents itself and the moments of job and compassion that is part of the neighborhood.
Miguel Luciano is a Puerto Rican-American born artist who lives and works in New York City.
This unusual sculpture was along the wall of the hospital but I could not find the artist on this
Between Third Avenue and Lexington, there is a nice place to sit and relax at the Marketplace Plaza. This small pocket plaza was created between to newish buildings and provides a comfortable place amongst the flower beds to sit and relax and people watch. There are benches and rows of flower beds to admire and rest your legs on the long walks up the Avenues.
Third Avenue is the most commercial section of the neighborhood dominated by stores and restaurants along the way. It is again a street of extremes as new buildings dominate until you reach the Lexington Houses at 98th Street and then the street is juxtaposed again with a series of public housing, luxury buildings tucked away and commercial buildings that are in the process of renovation.
I reached the Poor Richards Playground outside the Tag Young Scholar School and Junior High 117 by mid-afternoon and the kids were letting out for the day. The place was mobbed with children and parents from the neighborhood. Poor Richard’s Playground was named after Benjamin Franklin as this was one of his alias’s, Poor Richard Saunders of which ‘Poor Richard’s Almanac’ was named. He has so many accomplishments to his name it is hard to pin-point one (NYCParks.org).
Kids were playing basketball and tag on the school’s playground and I got quite the looks from the teachers as I watched the kids play basketball especially when I had to throw the ball over the fence when it flew over to me. I just smiled and continued the walk.
Poor Richard’s Playground at 240 East 109th Street
Across the street from the school and the surrounding blocks there are some really nice reasonable restaurants for lunch. These are places that the kids and their parents were eating at after school. Make & Bake Pizza at 1976 Third Avenue now Third Avenue Pizza as of 2022 (See review on TripAdvisor) has terrific pizza at $1.00 a slice and it is so fresh because the place is so busy.
Another great place to eat is Mr. Moe’s Deli at 2001 Third Avenue called “Third Ave. Deli in 2023 (now Mr. Moe’s Grocery Deli is at 1924 Second Avenues). They make a terrific, chopped cheese sandwich that competes with Blue Sky Deli up on 110th Street.
Since the grill was closed at Third Ave. Deli in 2023, I had to go to Aldalhi Deli at 1923 Third Avenue a few doors down for a Chopped Cheese. They do a great job too.
Moe’s Grocery is now Third Ave. Deli and the grill is now closed for repair
The Chopped Cheese sandwich at both places is really good.
The nice part about Mr. Moe’s is that their chopped cheese sandwich comes with a Coke for $3.50. It is a great bargain and it is delicious (the grill is currently closed in 2023).
The best part is on a nice day take your lunch to the White Playground on 106th between Third and Lexington Avenues and relax on the benches. It is such a nice playground and is beautifully landscaped and I thought very safe with all the parents and grandparents around watching the kids play.
Lexington Avenue and Park Avenue are also the land of extremes as well. Walking up Lexington Avenue to about 98th Street is an extension of the Upper East Side until you hit the Lexington Houses at 98th Street and those go on for a block until you reach between 101st and 102nd Streets, where you will see the most beautiful set of brownstones with artwork from local Harlem artists on the west side of the road across from the gas station. The is also a few outdoor cafes that are very nice in the area so you can see the area is getting gentrified.
Lexington Avenue at East 104th Street
The doorway was particularly interesting
The street art in this neighborhood is varied and very unique. On 106th Street off Lexington Avenue, there is a painting dedicated to Puerto Rican Poet Julia de Burgos entitled ‘Remembering Julia de Burgos’ that has excellent detail and you should take the time to see. Also, along 110th Street and Lexington Avenue on the wall of the Success Academy, there is another interesting mural that is very colorful.
The artwork featured on this blog was my favorite piece of street was the man dressed in animal costumes that I saw on 106th Street. I was not too sure if it was a Central American theme to it or just tagged. Artist collaboration between street artists Elle and Craw designed this amazing work.
This was a collaboration by street artists Claw and Elle and are both known in the fashion and art industries.
Similar works were done on the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 105th Street
The artwork at East 105th Street was done in tiles
Whatever the story to this artwork, whoever did it I thought was extremely talented. Another piece of street art that had been created was right by the mosaic of Julia de Burgos and was of a street vendor in East Harlem. I looked all over but could not find out who the artist was on it.
The street vendor in “Aqui me Quedo” on East 103rd Street
Julia de Burgos Painting in East Harlem
The Julia de Burgos mosaic near the Julia de Burgos Latin Cultural Center at 1680 Lexington Avenue
Travelling back down Lexington Avenue, there is all sorts of architecture to admire. There is a beautiful row of brownstones between 106th and 107th Streets.
The brownstones were so beautifully landscaped
A small private gated park by Bean Y Vino is at Lexington Avenue and 104th Street that I could only see from the outside is nicely landscaped.
Between 100th and 101st Streets on Lexington Avenue, there is Maggie’s Magic Garden, which is a whimsical little oasis of trees, flowers and plants with imaginative statuary all over this little space tucked between two buildings.
Maggie’s Magic Garden is part of the NYC Parks system
I was lucky that the garden was open that day and met Maria ‘Maggie’ Amurrio herself who created the garden over a decade ago from a weed ridden lot to this little piece of paradise that is perfect for kids to visit.
She and I talked for about a half hour and she explained that she was sick and tired of this lot looking like this and wanted to do something about it. Like many of the Community Gardens and their creators whom I have met along my travels, she took matters into her own hands and with the help of other volunteers started to clean the lot up and plant it.
The sun sculpture outside Maggie’s Magic Garden
She told me that later the Parks Department recognized this effort and now she has the seal from the city. Not only does she grow flowers here but is also growing fruits and vegetables and took me on a tour to show me where birds live in the trees. It is amazing how the determination of one New Yorker and a group of volunteers shows in creating this creative piece of landscape. Try not to miss this little oasis on your travels up and down Lexington.
The fence decorated that currently surrounds this little park
Street art on Lexington Avenue
Traveling up Park and Madison is interesting because when you get past 98th Street, it is pretty much public housing complexes from 98th to 110th Streets, stretching from Park Avenue to Madison Avenue. This is dominated by the Washington Carver Houses from 99th Street to 106th Street, the Lehman Houses from 107th Street to 110th Street, the Governor DeWitt Houses on the Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue from 110th to 108th and then to 106th to 104th Streets and the Lexington Houses from 98th to 99th Streets. So, walking through this area of Park and Madison Avenues make sure to go through while school is out and people are outside. I never felt unsafe but there will moms and kids all over the playgrounds in the projects and everyone ignored me.
The projects also cut the neighborhood into sections as you have to keep walking through them to get to the extension of the street. So, as I was finishing the Avenues on my way to starting the streets, you have to make several trips especially on 107th Street through the projects to complete the grid.
When I was passing the subway station near 103rd Street right by the Washington Carver Houses, I had not noticed a street art portrait of Celia Cruz. The artist did a good job.
The Celia Cruz painting on 103rd Street
The work was done by artist James De La Vega in 2003
Mr. De La Vega is an American artist of Puerto Rican decent who lives in New York City. He is known for his street and muralist art. He is a graduate of Cornell University with a BFA in Fine Arts.
Further down the road on East 100th Street closer to Third Avenue, I saw the funeral portrait of a resident of the neighborhood. When you see these things, it really puts the neighborhood life into perspective.
Vivian’s Grandson-I could not find the artist
Across the street, there was another piece of street art dedicated to the children of the neighborhood but again I looked all over and could not find the artist on this either.
The children’s street art on East 100th Street by Third Avenue. It looked like it had been added onto over the years.
Martha Stewart has been involved in helping Mt. Sinai Hospital and built a beautiful garden across the street between 99th and 100th Streets that was locked both times I tried to visit it. Her and her staff did a nice job landscaping and planting this part of the Washington Carver Houses gardens and the playground. Many of the staff from the hospital use this area to relax on their lunch breaks and the kids are very active here.
Martha Stewart Garden at Madison and East 99th Street
Mt. Sinai creates the border between the Upper East Side and Spanish Harlem on this side of the neighborhood and the campus spreads two blocks over. Between this and the Park Avenue train creates the border on this side of the neighborhood. The between the west side of Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue are the most expensive housing in the neighborhood that faces Central Park. Even here the housing is being updated and renovated. You have also some of your nicest stone buildings with elegant carved entrances. Businesses also dominate this side of Madison Avenue.
There are some good options to eat at in the neighborhood. On the corner of 97th and Madison Avenue at 1398 Madison Avenue there is Famiglia Pizza. This has some of the best pizza by the slice in the city and their prices are fair. Their plain and sausage pizzas are really good.
The pizza at Famiglia Pizza is excellent
For a quick snack, I also like Tu Casa Grocery at 29 East 104th Street (Closed in May 2020) right next to the Museum of the City of New York. For a dollar, they have excellent chicken and beef pastelitos and they sell soda and candy for a reasonable price. I took a couple of pastelitos and a Coke and went into Central Park to relax after finishing the Avenues.
I finished the Avenues on May 15th by relaxing at the Conservatory Garden at 104th and Fifth Avenue. It was an interesting and tiring day and it was just nice to relax.
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