Very Superstitious?

There are more psychic and spiritual seeing/healing places than these four around here...

Why are there so many around here?

Rents around here are high, so there must be just as big a demand for these places as for nail salons!

Have never been to a Psychic or a Spiritual healer or anything....and don't intend to.

Murray Hill houses-- with an eye for detail

Murray Hill houses are often very distinctive in their architectural detail...and, of course, fun to look at.

First building shown here harks back to era when there were a lot of buildings built with sloping glass windows to catch the North Light ( supposedly great for an artist).

Note craftsmanship in other buildings...and there is so much of it on so many of these houses.

Armenian Something- Memorial?

Local Armenian Cathedral, as usual, has some kind of meeting going on but it doesn't look particularly Armenian...all sorts of groups rent out their meeting hall.

Don't understand significance of flower crosses on trees around Cathedral.

Will ask someone from the place during the week what it represents.

If you know, please tell me.

Spring Comes to Manhattan-more, 2010

This view of 42nd Street looking East is taken from the Tudor City footbridge...

I have no particular reason to show this picture, except again it gives you a feeling of the power and congestion of Midtown Manhattan, which doesn't seem so bad on a pleasant Spring day.

Odds and Ends and Oddities

Regular barber shops have been disappearing in Manhattan for some time, replaced by "Hair Salons."

This shop looks new and I guess is going for a retro look...

ON Fifth Avenue, not far from the Empire State Building, all kinds of souvenir items and kitsch are mixed with two miniature statues of liberty ( just one shown here).

And a vacant lot promises something new from Korea...what, I can't figure out exactly.

Corinthian- the super condo building

When it was built in 1989, the Corinthian was Manhattan's largest condo building-- 57 floors of undulating tower at Third Avenue and 38th Street.

Googled up reviews of the place by tenants and owners of condo units...

Place gets very mixed reviews.

Has beautiful views but apartments are not all that luxurious --some are much bigger than others--and cost a fortune.

It has a lot going for it if you want to live in Midtown and like the amenities like the pool and gym etc.

Midtown Peculiarities

Noted a few more points of interest, all of them within a few blocks of each other.. starts with apartment building that is curved to fit around exit ramp of Midtown tunnel..getting reverse angle I almost got run over by frantic drivers racing towards tunnel...

Then there is the little building and courtyard that has a plaque saying it is on the Historic Register, but it doesn't say for what. Suspect a lot of cities have little nooks like this.

Frieze on Daily News building is a little hard to read, says " He Made So Many of Them"--which is a reference to poor people I believe ( "God loves poor people...that is why he made so many of them.") Showing the populist roots of the Daily News, whatever its editorial policy is these days.

Then there is one of those odd midtown penthouses that date from way back.

More glass in new buildings

Have noticed some of new buildings have much more glass in their walls again....which sort of went out with the beginnings of the energy crisis years ago.

Maybe new glass is better insulated.

Note previous posting that new "Green" building is sort of glass-walled too.

More modern architecture in the neighborhood

Have noticed I tend to focus more on traditional architecture in the neighborhood...here are some more recent buildings ( well, relatively recent anyway)..

First is the new "Green Condo" that is nearing completion. It is advertising itself as being eco-friendly in every way... it will also recycle money on a big scale to live there.

Have noticed that, unlike older designed buildings, newer ones often make no attempt to hide water towers. There are exceptions, of course.

Those wooden water towers are so typical of Manhattan.

Met the son of the owner of the Rosenwach company , which has put up most of them it seems. He told me that they had competitors, however. ( This was at a business meeting of young presidents of corporations--- I did PR work for them).

Lower Lexington Avenue-above 23rd Street

Lexington Avenue North of 23rd Street has changed a lot...

It used to be pretty seedy, with a lot of hookers at night and cheap bars, dangerous side streets...

This area around the Armory began to get seriously gentrified even before Baruch College ( a division of the City College) moved in with its distinctive building.

There were always some East Indian shops around this stretch too, especially a little further to the North.

Looks like some of those have moved out as rents have risen.

Old and New, Health4U

All around Murray Hill and Kips Bay, and as you move further Westward, you see old buildings being renovated and new ones going up...often shoehorned in on side streets in what used to be against the zoning laws. The result is more and more Midtown congestion and the loss of small shops and even supermarkets...

Noticed, too, something that is rare for Manhattan, at least in Midtown-- a frame house. No plaque or anything so don't know the history of it.

My sister would probably love Health4U. Sure it carries all kinds of items geared for vegetarians and vegans... and of course, organic food.

Friend in California has just notified me that Murray Hill is now the 8th most desirable neighborhood in NYC..most of the best ones are in Brooklyn, apparently. Sounds like a very trendy article he got this from.

More Springtime!

Still part of the first wave of post-daffodil Spring, flowers everywhere now...

And trees still coming into bloom everywhere.

Little flower garden abuts driveway of apartment building on Third Avenue; park is secluded by Tudor City apartment buildings.

This kind of mild but not all that warm weather is great...

Midtown Contrasts

Went to Modell's sporting goods on 42nd Street to get a free weight to use to exercise my right wrist, which still needs work--even though fracture was ages ago.

Oh, how full of contrasts the center of Manhattan is!

From classic skyscrapers along 42nd Street, then to garish rental signs on buildings, --and suddenly, a vest pocket park which is like a mini-stonehenge. (Fountain isn't running yet...this will be a very beckoning place for weary pedestrians in the summer),

And then the Astro gems and minerals etc. store on 34th Street with its fascinating window displays...

All this and so much more packed into such a small area.

Midtown Shutterbug, cool April day

What I really wanted to get was a shot of some tourists craning their necks to see the top of the Empire State Building...

and the inevitable shutterbug crouched down and contorting himself, trying to get a "unique" shot of the building...following the other people who had done the same thing earlier and the many more who would do it later.

Nearby there are some renovated buildings that interest me more than the Empire State Building at the moment...

And, it's a cool April day again. The daffodils have wilted but the tulips are still going strong. After skimpy clothing for a few days, people are dressed more seasonably again.

Faux Summer , April 2010

Heat bump has arrived, warm today, hot on Wednesday...

by Friday it is back to normal cool rainy weather...

This short "faux summer" has of course all sorts of people out in skimpiest of costumes, and people hanging out of bar room windows as seen here...

Non-Existent Easter Parade, 2010

New York once had an Easter Parade with all kinds of frilly hats and other finery on display, but that was a long time ago...

Today, it's just "two million tourists in search of something happening."

Bewildered girl with bunny ears seems to symbolize day-- as do tourists looking in shop windows and a tourist bus on an empty Third Avenue.

Trees in Blossom locally

Don't know what prompted it, but all these trees around here have just gone--sproing!--and blossomed today.

Reminds you that Springtime is so fleeting!