Monday, December 11, 2006

Today's Photo Tour: New York


A fabulous day for a walk in the city. Temps in the 50s, light breeze, sunshine. No matter how I try to vary my routine, I seem to end up walking a similar route each time I go exploring. (Since I always so enjoy myself, I guess there's little impetus to alter that routine more.) For all I remember, I may even have taken, and posted, about the exact same pictures before.

But the city is never quite the same twice, so here's a glimpse of today.

A holiday market in Union Square.



One of New York's original urban garden / greenspaces, apparently--the Liz Christy Garden. I've never heard of it, but it appears to have been the source of some controversy as a developer wanted the space. It's now a bit gone to seed, and the signs (from a year or two ago) indicate that a compromise has been reached and most of the garden gets to stay.




I saw the shopping bags from this place for several blocks before I found the store.



A couple street photos.




My favorite book store from which, I believe, I have never bought a book. But I love the idea of it. Between this place and Grammercy Park and the Dean & Deluca deli (which I refrained from photographing for the 75th time), it's like walking around in a Steely Dan lyric.




Today's lunch spot, on Broadway just South of Union Square. Amazingly (for me), I did not have chocolate.



Fun architecture in the lengthening shadows.



Wonder where the cheap housing is in Manhattan? (Well, it certainly LOOKS cheap; but I bet it isn't).



Perhaps the coolest single third of a block in Manhattan. I want everything in this store.



Odds & ends.





It seems so hopelessly touristy, but Times Square gets my attention on every visit (even when I try to avoid it). It's usually dusk when I'm making my way back to Penn Station, and there's so much light here that night seems not to fall on these few blocks. As in this picture, you can see, and sense, it coming from several blocks away. Of course, they're the busiest blocks in the city, though probably with the smallest percentage of native New Yorkers, and so everyone seems to be coming toward or away from this region. (The 42nd St. photo that begins the post captures a similar flavor--and it's all connected, of course.)



finis

4 comments:

mysterygirl! said...

Great pictures! And I've always wanted to go to The Strand (and yes, that's kind of a weird thing for me to say).

wstachour said...

My other favorite place--this time, where I actually HAVE spent a bunch of money--is Tower Records, and now they're closing. How sad. It's impossible to shop very effectively for new, arcane CD releases, or deep-catalog stuff, on the internet. And now one of the key places to rummage thru thousands of titles is going dodo.

Boy, if classical music cannot survive in Manhattan, what hope is there?

Anonymous said...

That first picture: So pretty. I'm jealous.

The Retropolitan said...

Ah... home sweet home. I really love this city.