The mural at Houston and the Bowery 5 years ago

On Friday, we posted a photo from a mere five years ago of the wall at the Bowery and Houston... Here are two more shots from 2006 via Fresh Paint NYC....

Beats the advertising that was on this spot

Good ol' dickchicken. On Houston near Avenue A.

Breaking! Firetrucks (and firefighters!) in action at the corner where Keith McNally will somehow probably ruin

Just after 3, the corner of Bowery and Houston was the scene of chaos! Enough equipment to put out the inferno at the Towering Inferno! Fire trucks! Ladders! Firefighters! Drivers trying to turn right onto Bowery and honking their horns!








Everyone stood around for a little bit then left. No report of actual flames from the people standing around -- the people standing around who weren't firefighters. Tourists took pictures. Someone had a video camera. Anyway, good thing there wasn't a real fire -- the firefighters would not have been able to penetrate the quadruple plywood protecting McNally's new pizza joint.

The new world order, at least on the LES

Do you remember the Iglesia Pentecostal Arca De Salvacion (above) at the corner of Houston and Suffolk? Well, here's all that's left of it.




Wow, that seemed quick. (I'm told the church moved to a new location.) I haven't heard yet what's going in here. I'm sure something useful and new and different. As I mentioned Sunday, Vasmay Lounge has moved from the other side of Houston and Suffolk to Essex Street. More change is expected on the relatively quiet Suffolk Street. One resident told me they are waiting to be bought out by their landlord, who plans on selling the old tenement building. And what became of those Starbucks-to-Suffolk-and-Stanton rumors? (Based on what I read and what people told me, Starbucks was opening on every street corner in the LES. And is Starbucks even expanding these days?)

I thought about this as I crossed Houston onto Avenue B, where the name of this newish store on Avenue B between Houston and 2nd Street really hit me.