Queens Scenes

A few of my favorites.  Above, 43rd Ave. off Crescent St. in Long Island City.

Thomson Ave. at Dutchkills St. over the LIRR tracks.

Madison Square towers in the distance, from 49th Ave. near 33rd St.

Warm Water Hudson

In case you're already sick of winter, some springtime shots across the Hudson to Jersey City.


And as a bonus, upstream from the two-fer-tecture below, another set of Jersey twins.

More Irritating NYC

Was it Wall Street Bike Your Son to Work Day on the Williamsburg Bridge?
NYC continues to lead the world in irritation innovation.  If I ruled NYC:

- Agile fakers who use a cane for show, then shoot through doors ahead of you, would have their cane pulled out from under them until they really need one.

- People who drag around a suitcase on wheels, hogging sidewalk space and blocking escalators, would have to pay an "axle fee," which could be used to widen sidewalks and escalators.

- People who rush in front of you to get on an escalator, then stop and block your way, would get their shoe laces caught in the teeth at the landing, fall on their face, and be turned into a welcome mat.

- People who let their dog do its "business" on subway grates, making the platform below reek, would be sedated and dressed in a St. Bernard costume, then sent to the pound.

- Since historic neighborhood names only serve to sell luxury condos at this point, I would rename neighborhoods after the wi-fi ID of the local Starbucks, and edit Wikipedia to claim, e.g., that "the LES" was named for Les Grille, the inventor of the Belgian Waffle Truck.

- I would still allow people to exit unattended gates at subway stations and trigger the alarms, but ...

... since who, outside of sociopaths like congressman Darrel Issa, the self-proclaimed inventor of the car alarm, still thinks that subjecting the public to pointless shrieking is a substitute for good design?  If your car alarm goes off, it should call your cell phone, not wake up the whole block just for spite, and if the MTA wants to control the gates it should find a solution instead of adding yet more fraudulent "emergency" noise to the city ...

... I would put the business end of the alarms inside MTA headquarters.

U.S. Realty Building

A well-lit morning brings out the best in the Trinity Place face of the U.S. Realty Building, downtown at Thames St.  More on the building and its sister next door, the Trinity Building, at NY Architecture.

Greenwich Village Then & Now

Dylan & Suze Rotolo on Jones St. in the Village
Nearly 50 years ago, on January 24, 1961, Bob Dylan first arrived in Greenwich Village [Interferenza].  (Also see Touring Bob Dylan's New York, The Telegraph.)

Now the Village draws a different set, with Craigslist job listings like the one to the left for a High Frequency Trading Developer (Greenwich Village).

What more can you say about New Bloomberg City?  NYC is Wall Street's mistress, dependent on its mercenary drones and "innovations" like high frequency trading, all geared toward skimming as much as possible before the casino collapses.

Dylan said "New York was a dream... of the cosmopolitan riches of the mind.  It was a great place for me to learn and to meet others who were on similar journeys"  [Westwood One Radio, 1985; via Interferenza].

There's no room for that kind of nonsense now, when Young Republicans flock to New York dreaming of Bloombergian riches, of going to school and puking "east side, west side, all around the town," before joining the Wall Street fraternity and the shiny lifestyle it buys, eventually settling into suburban luxury in the middle of NYC -- something a Master of the Universe might find deadly boring without the knowledge that this city is always waiting up for him, legs spread, naked in furs, with lines of coke on the coffee table and a music video playing on the wall-sized TV, to the strains of Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" (sample; original lyrics):

When you're lost in the rain in Cancun
And it's bonus time too
And your portfolio fails
And your hedge fund don't pull you through
Don't put on any tears
When you're down on Los Hooters Avenue
You had your way with New York City, bro
– you can do it to Mexico too!

Siberian Sugar

Friday morning, snow that started out like powdered sugar got more Siberian.  Above, a reliable sight off 51st Ave. near 23rd St. in Long Island City.

Then later at Bryant Park, below, the snow turned slushy.  Notice that the fountain's running and the tree lights are still on, below right, and that I've managed to shoot around the massive ad complex that surrounds the ice rink.


And finally, circling back to Long Island City below, truckers enjoy the Fresh Direct Drive-In on Borden Ave., a few blocks away from the scene up top.