Comments on: Vertically Challenged http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/09/15/vertically-challenged/ Exploring urban life through word and photography Tue, 07 Sep 2010 06:05:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Christopher Szabla http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/09/15/vertically-challenged/comment-page-1/#comment-304153 Christopher Szabla Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:31:30 +0000 http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/?p=4967#comment-304153 The city has long had grand plans for Midtown West, but they've never really gotten off the ground. The real estate bubble was pushing these now frozen construction projects into the area over the last few years, but they would have never really made up for the desolation. Part of the problem is that it suffers from a paradoxical isolation, given how close it is to Midtown proper, Penn Station, and Port Authority. Most of it is just slightly too far from them, and too large to walk around, without the subway extension that's always been promised but never been delivered. Hell's Kitchen is in a similar situation geographically, but it at least has historical charm and gets associated with romantic bohemianism. As for Williamsburg: yes, it will probably take more than a wave of bankruptcies and a few homeless to completely kill that party. Judging from all the Castillan Spanish you hear on Bedford Ave., everyone in Madrid must still dream of waiting in line two hours to have an omelet there. The city has long had grand plans for Midtown West, but they’ve never really gotten off the ground. The real estate bubble was pushing these now frozen construction projects into the area over the last few years, but they would have never really made up for the desolation.

Part of the problem is that it suffers from a paradoxical isolation, given how close it is to Midtown proper, Penn Station, and Port Authority. Most of it is just slightly too far from them, and too large to walk around, without the subway extension that’s always been promised but never been delivered. Hell’s Kitchen is in a similar situation geographically, but it at least has historical charm and gets associated with romantic bohemianism.

As for Williamsburg: yes, it will probably take more than a wave of bankruptcies and a few homeless to completely kill that party. Judging from all the Castillan Spanish you hear on Bedford Ave., everyone in Madrid must still dream of waiting in line two hours to have an omelet there.

]]> By: Christopher DeWolf http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/2009/09/15/vertically-challenged/comment-page-1/#comment-304024 Christopher DeWolf Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:14:14 +0000 http://www.urbanphoto.net/blog/?p=4967#comment-304024 The least impressive introduction I've had to Manhattan was when I took a bus from Newark airport to Port Authority. When you emerge from the tunnel into the western end of Midtown, you pass through the kind of landscape you captured in your first photo. So there's heroin all over Williamsburg... is that any different than normal? The least impressive introduction I’ve had to Manhattan was when I took a bus from Newark airport to Port Authority. When you emerge from the tunnel into the western end of Midtown, you pass through the kind of landscape you captured in your first photo.

So there’s heroin all over Williamsburg… is that any different than normal?

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