Strolling in New York City is a world tour. The street fairs of Spanish Harlem mesh into college town Columbia. Columbia gives way to the shabby chic of the Upper West Side. A few blocks farther and I am drowned by the tourists of Times Square. Even further, and I reach the mindless bustle of Wall Street brokers. There could be no more fitting a place for the United Nations.
I stroll and try to identify the passing languages. Spanish in the outer boroughs. Polish in Greenpoint. Russian in Brighton Beach. Cantonese in Chinatown. French and German in SoHo.
Reading “Here is New York” by E.B. White, I realize how little New York has changed in the past sixty odd years. Sure, the streets, cars, and tenements are different. But the essential spirit of dynamic and diverse urbanism remains. Here is New York.
Click here to learn more about my New York walks. Or, click on the images below for full resolution.
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Day One: Chinatown and Lower Manhattan
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City Hall Park and the Financial District
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View of Chinatown towards Lower Manhattan
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Henry & Market Streets – Tenement Row
Overfilled Trashcan
Mulberry Street
Mulberry St. Fortune Teller (center)
Mosco & Mulberry Alley
Bayard & Mulberry Grocery
Flâneur picks his teeth in window reflection.
Forsyth & Delancey Grocery
Laundromat
Delancy St. Tenements
catcaller on Broome St.
Broome St. Buddhist Temple
Doyers Street – Barbershop Row
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Day Two: SoHo
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Mercer Street in SoHo
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Water Tower on Lafayette
Houston Street
Bodega Ads on Houston
Water Tower
Canal Street Back Alley
Street Performers
Cast Iron on Broadway
Broadway and Broome
Rooftop Garden View
Subway Entrance
Prince and Mott Streets
Looking Up Lafayette
The Puck Building
Taxis on Houston
View Toward Manhattan Bridge
Locked Alley
Man Unconsciously Modeling
View Toward Bowery
Glass Portholes on Sidewalk
Broadway and Broome
Lower Broadway
Greene & Prince Streets
Greene & Prince Streets
Crosby & Broome Streets
Mulberry & Jersey Streets
Mulberry Street German School
Prince & Mulberry Streets
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Day Three: The East & West Villages
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By the Bowery
Fantasy Parties sells erotic paraphernalia.
The Modern Family
Washington Square Park Arch
Justin the Statue: I get used to this. I do this to supplement my income for most of the year.
Elderly man watches little children roll by on tricycles and scooters.
New York’s first public library is in foreground.
Wizened Hobo
Jefferson Market
Wayne the Bird Dude: I’ve been spotting birds in this park for over twenty years. You should look my name up on Instagram.
Colonnade Row on Lafayette Street
Love and Luck
Street Performer
Snoozing Woman
1st Ave Sunset
1st Ave Streetscape
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Day Four: The High Line
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9th Ave. & West 14th St.
Washington & Little West 12th
9th Ave & West 14th St.
High Line & Gansevoort St.
Latino family traverses West 14th.
High Line & 19th
Homeless man naps as tourists pass.
Performance “Art”
Old & New New York
High Line & 25th
Tagging?
High Line & 24th
Pedestrian passes gentrification in action.
High Line & 26th
Gentrification at West 28th
Rooftop Grafitti
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Day Five: Madison Square
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View Towards Midtown
23rd Street
Flatiron Building
23rd & 5th Avenue
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Day Six: Midtown
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Preaching Armageddon in the Capital of Consumerism: Times Square
The Polish Embassy
Grand Central Terminal
Jihadist proclaims that “America will soon be destroyed by fire!”
Empire State from Greeley Square
Chrysler Building
Queensboro Bridge
Chrysler Building
Elderly man approaches and extracts a crumpled and blurry image of a dollar sign from his bag.
Hey, can you draw me some money bags.
Me: Sure.
You know, it’s for my product. I’ll pay you well. What’s your name?
Me: Myles Zhang
You Chinese? You parents from China?
Me: No, America.
No, China…!
He walks off.
An Latin American immigrant drives up in Midtown in his pickup truck.
Him: How far is the statue of Liberty from here?
Me: Oh… About seven miles.
Jurgen from Germany
A homeless musician approaches and observes my painting of Grand Central.
Jurgen: You are an artist.
Me: No, that is a title I have yet to earn. Are you from Germany? You sound like the director Werner Herzog.
Jurgen: Herzog? Him? His films put me to sleep. [Jurgen shows me his noteboook.] If I lived in Nazi Germany, the Nazis would burn my work, maybe even me. My grandfather, he used to go to rallies to give the Nazi salute. I still don’t know why he did that. I don’t think he even knew.
Convert proclaims that “America will soon be destroyed by fire!”
Convert preaches the impending doom of America on Sixth Ave and 34th: “The US government, they invented this virus that will kill off all the black people.”
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Day Seven: Central Park
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Bethesda Fountain
8th Ave Lake
Lovers Lane
Two lovers. One rock.
8th Ave Lake
Lovers Lane
Lovers Lane
Wollman Rink toward Midtown
Wollman Rink toward Midtown
Heckscher Playground toward 59th St.
The Ramble
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Day Eight: Riverside Drive
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Inside Riverside Church
Riverside Church
125th Street Viaduct
72 Street Viaduct
Grant Memorial
George Washington Bridge from Riverside State Park
George Washington Bridge from Riverside State Park
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Day Nine: Morningside Heights
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Apse
Union Theological Seminary (120th)
Van Am Quad
Columbia University: Low Library
Columbia University: Lowe Memorial Library
Columbia University: Saint Paul’s Chapel
Columbia University
Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
Philosophy Hall
Panorama of Low Library
Van Am Quad
Cathedrals of Industry: Saint John the Divine and the 125th Street Viaduct
For more about Saint John the Divine, click here.
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Day Ten: Harlem
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The composition of the watercolor below is based on the spiraling arc of the Golden Rectangle.
The 125th Street Viaduct
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Dyckman Street Strip Mall
Sherman Street Apartments
Boudega sells ice cream, cigarettes, & chewing gum (190th).
Mixed Race Couple (159th)
GW Bridge Causeway (178th)
Theater repurposed as United Palace Church (175th).
Aidan (at left) plays with friends (159th).
Play Street (159th)
Townhomes (159th)
Squatter’s entrance to vacant townhome (159th).
Jeo (in blue) plays checkers on a garbage can (159th).
Strip Mall (192nd)
Play Street (159th)
Aubudon Terrace (156th)
The pants in center are by Josefina and cost $198.
C-Town Grocery (150th)
Sign reads: Please put trash in can and do not leave out.
Subway Viaduct (135th)
Newspaper clipping at lower right celebrates Obama’s inauguration.
A curbside shrine to murder victims. A $2000 reward is promised for tips leading to perpetrator’s arrest (152nd).
Union Theological Seminary (120th)
The Cloisters
The Cloisters
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“The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.”
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– Here is New York by E.B. White
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