A Day in New York

Day Thirteen - No driving

God, this blogging business takes AGES! I started tonight at about 10:15PM, and it's now 2:20AM. Editing and uploading the photos and videos takes a long time.

I hung around the city today, and I'm glad I did. I met my old friend from San Francisco, Anna, for lunch. Prior to that, I had a look around the World Trade Center site. It's still kind of a sad place, but there is progress now. The new World Trade Center One is rising from the ashes.

St. Paul's Chapel nearby is really worth a visit. There are a few graves from soldiers/volunteers who served in the Revolutionary War. George Washington worshiped here while he was President. I took some photos in the cemetery with Ground Zero in the background, and the new Trade Center rising behind.

The chapel survived unscathed during the attacks of September 11th. It served as a refuge and volunteer center during the days and weeks after the crisis, and the fence around the church was where people posted pictures of their missing loved ones. It's a lovely little place. It also seems to be serving as a de facto memorial site until the official one is finished across the street.

After lunch and meeting Anna, I decided to check out the non-existent "remains" of the former Five Points (from Gangs of New York infamy). This was a heck of a place in it's heyday. According to Wikipedia, the most enduring description of the neighborhood was penned by Charles Dickens in his 1842 work American Notes. As he strolled about Manhattan in his first visit to the United States he did not shrink from the worst areas of town:

"There are many by-streets, almost as neutral in clean colours, and positive in dirty ones, as by-streets in London; and there is one quarter, commonly called the Five Points, which, in respect of filth and wretchedness, may be safely backed against Seven Dials, or any other part of famed St. Giles's..."

Anyway, I found the "Five Points" to be long gone, and devoid of any of the colorful and unsavory characters from Herbert Asbury's book. The self-portrait of myself sitting by the trees is very close to the original place. The picture from my phone at Worth and Baxter streets is the former intersection of the Points.

After an ice cream and a soda (it was sweltering today), I met up with Anna again, and we rendezvoused with her husband Kris and a few of his work friends. We had a few drinks at the "Naked Lunch" bar in Soho. Then we went on for a really nice meal at a place called "Antique Garage" on nearby Mercer Street.

The food at Antique Garage is a kind of fusion of Greek and Turkish. We really loved it, BUT....the music - please excuse me if I sound like a philistine - was what my Dad would describe as "shit jazz." By this my father is, I believe, referring to "free jazz." My mother loves it. I don't. I think it's one of those things you're "supposed" to like, but I just can't get into it. Anyway, as soon as our starters arrived, the band (of which we were previously and blissfully unaware) re-took the stage. It was really loud, really obnoxious, and bloody endless. It would be the equivalent of sending a bunch of old ladies for afternoon tea and scones, and Pantera taking the stage literally in the midst of them. Nothing against Pantera.

As soon as we paid the bill, the band finished. The timing could not have been worse (or better, depending on your point of view).

I took a nighttime picture of the view down Mercer Street as we parted ways. The Chrysler Building was aglow in the distance. It's always sad saying goodbye to old friends. Then it was onto the subway, and back to the Chelsea Lodge to write this blog!

My bike is parked on the street outside, and I have to move it because of street cleaning in the morning. I might take it on a little 2AM ride around Manhattan before I settle down for the night. After all, this is the city that never sleeps....