Extreme examples a block apart on the upper end of Bowery. Above, a repair shop at Great Jones, one of the neighborhood's last outposts of raw visual funk.Left and below, a unit of the suburban "Edge City package" so popular with developers -- slick, context-free living above a bank branch -- plunked down on the corner of Bond.
I would guess the well-to-do tourists at nearby sidewalk cafes are thinking "The great thing about New York is: You feel like you never left home!"
