"Honoring a great New Yorker" (aka This week's sign of the apocalypse)

Tonight through Sunday, the Empire State Building will be purple, pink and white in honor of Mariah Carey.

Why?

Says the ESB's Web site, it's "Honoring a Great New Yorker: Mariah Carey Breaks Records With E=MC2 Album Release."

She's from Huntington, Long Island.

[Via Gothamnist]

[This week's sign of the apocalypse line via Sports Illustrated's weekly feature. It was too fitting not to use.]

Questions of the day

Why is this newish spa on First Avenue and 2nd Street called Water Front? (The East River isn't exactly that close.)



Meanwhile, I saw this sign go up Tuesday night on St. Mark's Place.



Does the neighborhood really need another Asian spa? Seems as if several other new spas have opened recently...

NYC in all its black-and-white glory, yesterday and today

I opened up the 20th anniversary issue of the New York Press this morning. And the photo on Page 4 got my attention. It's a shot of a cab in a snowy Times Square circa 1988. The photographer is Matt Weber. The caption included his Web address. My day job has sapped any creativity that I may have had this week. So I'll just lamely say wow.

He also has a flickr stream, where I found the above photo. Too many to choose from to help illustrate this post and his work.

Life before...and after the luxury high rises on the LES

Spending too much time on YouTube these days...I came across these videos by Paul Dougherty, a longtime video maker.

Here's his YouTube page.



Also, check out the his other videos, including inside shots of St. Brigid's.

[OH!: Just found that Jeremiah had linked to these back in January! Sorry Jeremiah!]

Questions of the day (in which I don't have answers)

When people moved into apartments on lower floors with nice Eastern views at 2 Gold Street (which opened in March 2005) did they know another high-rise was going up right next door in 2008 that effectively obscures the nice Eastern views?




How soon before the southeast corner of Third Street and Avenue C....

looks like the northeast corner of Third Street and Avenue C?

Who is this ad supposed to appeal to?

Madison Street, 5:48 p.m., April 23

Madison Street, 5:47 p.m., April 23

Scenes from a walk

Haven't actually walked on Irving Place in a while. First, I was happy to see that John's Shoe Repair is still around. We all know what happens to little shops and services for people who aren't rich. Given what's going on in this neighborhood, I wonder about how much longer this gem can survive.





Meanwhile, came to the corner of 14th Street and Third Avenue. Scaffolding! And that wasn't there when I passed by Sunday. Uh-oh. This doesn't look good. Housing and a bank? [Housing? Ha! That sounds affordable. No, make this overpriced condos.]

I've seen this guy several times in front of the St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. Lovely spot, of course. Just curious why he's doing a painting of Dunkin' Donuts. Maybe he just likes their coffee.

Hello ladies!

Dumpsters. An all-too-common site. There's another one just a few hundred feet away in front of another building on the other side of 10th Street. Renovating apartments. Raising rents.

Still, what a day.

Hate to see what they'd say about a place they didn't recommend

For some reason I came across this listing for Mona's on Not For Tourists:

"Depressing. Recommended."

Oh, don't let that heavy breathing bother you -- these are really nice apartments

Wow. These apartment rental videos give me the creeps. Perhaps these would seem less like a slasher movie with some, say, smooth jazz accompanying the video.

Oops! Someone's home!




Who left the toilet seat up?!


He talks!

St. Mark's and First Avenue, 1993

Meanwhile, a few doors down...12 years earlier...an old favorite that never gets old.

"...a very conspicuous display of the wealthy sucking up and devouring even more of the soul of downtown NYC"

Bob at Neither More Nor Less has posted his photos and recap of the John Varvatos protest from this past Thursday night.

He writes, in part:

No matter how well meaning Mr. Varvatos' intentions may have been , and actually be , what many local artists and musicians saw in his Thursday evening extravaganza was just another example of a very conspicuous display of the wealthy sucking up and devouring even more of the soul of downtown NYC.

As always, he took many great photos, such as this one.