Community Canvas

Williamsburg- that pretty hipster and hasidic enclave in northern Brooklyn.  It's not an area I visit that often, but wow, does it have a lot to offer!  The main streets are lined with cute cafes, bars, and vintage stores.  There is a gorgeous park along the riverfront, with a great view of Manhattan (come back in a few days for more about this).  Fun antiques are sold on tables along the streets, and the walls of the abandoned warehouses are covered in some of the most creative and bizarre murals and grafitti that I have ever seen. 

There was one area in particular that just fascinated me.  It was the skeleton of an old warehouse, and I'm not sure what it is used for now, if it is at all.  Around the building were the kind of temporary walls you generally see around construction sites.  As I said, I'm not sure if this was part of the aesthetic, or whether this really was a construction site.  Either way, it was neat.  One place on the wall was this first photograph- "Community Canvas," encouraging people to draw and paint (and even sculpt!) on the wall.

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Bowery Be Bop

The Bowery, which is actually a street and the name of an area, used to be the dregs of New York.  Seedy, unsafe, you know.  All that kind of stuff that gentrified people don't like.  Murders, dives, etc.  Now, it's nice.  There are classy clubs.  Theatres.  Things like that.

Oh, and there are flowers.  Lots, and lots of flowers.  I mean, it's spring- everything is in bloom.

And, it's beautiful.

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

By the way... I know I've been doing a lot of neighborhood specific posts lately.  How are you enjoying it?  To me, it's an easy way to chronicle the photographs and keep a post focused on one topic.  But, I also know it's a bit different from what I was doing before.  I am happy with it, but I would love your feedback.  As always, feel free to leave me comments here or on Facebook, or send me an email.  

Thank you so much!

LES Love Song

Every time I am in the Lower East Side, it isn't my destination.  I can think of maybe two times in my life that I have specifically gone to LES.  I am always just passing through, walking, on my way to somewhere else...  Chinatown, Williamsburg, the East Village- wherever.  But, every time I find myself there, I wonder why I don't go there more often.  It's such a neat neighborhood!  

LES is often associated with professionals who are no longer young, and have recently realized that if they don't get married and start having kids soon they will miss their chance, so they had better go to lots of classy bars and find someone asap.  It is also associated with shifty project buildings that one shouldn't go by during the night.  To some, this would seem totally strange, but I like this mix of people.  The upscale and the... lowscale?  (Is that a word?) meet and mingle in LES.  There are trashy bodegas next to swanky nightclubs, collapsing tenements across the street from modern palaces.  It is a beautiful mix of high and low, with a lot of neat places to go, and things to see.  The parks are nifty, there is a lot of waterfront, and well, yeah.  It just appeals to me.  Sometime I'll go hang out there for real.  Maybe.  Or, I might just keep saying that I should.

Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Funky Town

I'm scheduling this to post in late morning, but as I sit down to write this post, the clock is about to hit 2:45am.  I'm sighing.  And yawning.  New York City doesn't sleep, and apparently, tonight, neither do I.  Trust me, it's not that I'm not tired, it's just that I can't sleep!

Maybe there is just too much excitement in the world.  Yesterday was really warm, and I spent basically the entire day walking around the city with Danny taking in the sights, flowers, air, and the fact that we could wear summer clothing.  I was in a sundress with no jacket or tights and, wow, it was just heavenly!  If every day could have that kind of weather I would be such a happy lady.

But the other kind of excitement is the city itself.  This place is so insanely vibrant.  Most of the color comes from the people, the fascinating individual people who make up the insane populous.  However, I am way too chicken and self-conscious to take photographs of people most of the time.  I would love to, don't get me wrong, but I don't want to offend anyone, or bug them.  So, I've captured the life of the city from around the people.  The signs, the street art, the plants.  I know I've posted a lot of things like this recently, but it's what happens to be capturing my attention at the moment.  I hope you like it. It's pretty funky.

These were all taken on a walk through Red Hook and Park Slope.

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA