UWS Street Scenes: A Dog and his Guitar

86th Street Subway Station Part III

Hi Life West

The Hi Life, one of our favorite long-time UWS haunts, apparently has purchased a novelty car to advertise their draft beer, 8 oz burgers, big bowl pasta and half-price-sushi-Tuesday goodness. I can usually take-or-leave NYC bar & restaurant novelty cars (the white stretch-SUVs with laser-light blue windows and chrome turntable radials appear to be perennial nightclub gimmick that takes serve no purpose other than to impress the B&T crowd and take up invaluable parking spaces), but this one I love. Why? Anytime you combine a two-foot tall martini with a car designed without seat belts, air bags, power steering or anti-lock brakes, that just has to turn out right.

86th Subway Station Part II

Here is another series of photos of the ceramic murals from the 86th Street Subway Station, starting with a rather detailed reproduction of the 72nd Street Control House. Enjoy!

86th Street Subway Station

As we've been living in a month-to-month rental during the last phase of our renovation, I've been boarding the 1 train (for you old timers, the Seventh Avenue IRT) at the 86th Street station (a different stop than my normal route). The 86th Street station has a beautiful series of glazed murals - over 30 by my count - that each depict unique scenes of street life on the Upper West Side. I'll be posting additional shots of the murals over the next two weeks.

New Yorkers at Home

The Gothamist has a great post featuring a snippet of Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt's a book, America At Home. The post also includes several fascinating photographs from the book - a Chinese family of 5 crowded into a 2 room apartment, artists lofts in Williamsburg, an apparent disposophiac on the UWS, a rhinestone & jungle apartment in Peter Cooper Village, and more. Check it out.

Morning views from the terrace

The new (temporary) apartment has a beautiful terrace with eastern, western and southern views. The morning sunlight really draws you out of bed in the morning.

UWS Spring: Trees by the Water

I took a walk with the family yesterday down to the 79th Street Boat Basin. The trees along Riverside Park where in full bloom. What a beautiful day in the UWS.

Monday morning around Sherman Square

72nd Street Control House and Verdi Square

A bird's eye view of the 72nd Street Control House, the newer 72nd Street Subway Station and Sherman Square's bigger cousin to the north, Verdi Square.

Changing Manhattan Neighborhoods

Another day, another New York Times article about developers changing the face of a quiet Manhattan neighborhood.

It looks as if the quiet of the upper west side is to be rudely broken into by the building of several playhouses. The latest step toward the transformation of that neighborhood into another Rialto is the probable purchase of a lot on Sherman Square, at Seventy-third Street, by Thompson Dundy, proprietors of Luna Park, Coney Island.

Oh wait, that article is from 1904.

UPDATED:

Anyone get the "Rialto" reference from the last post?

Historic Photos

We live across the square from the 72nd Street Subway Station. Actually, the station isn't really a station at all -- it is a "control house" -- one of only three left in all of New York City. Here are a few old photos from the Library of Congress.

First Steps

Greetings and hello from Sherman Square. You might be thinking, "Where the hell is Sherman Square?" Fair enough.

Quoting Wikipedia:

Sherman Square is a diminutive public space at the intersection of West 72nd Street and Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in New York City. The small parcel of land, acquired by the city in 1849, was named for William Tecumseh Sherman, who had once resided nearby, in 1891.

Diminutive? Sure. Litter prone? Check. Inconsequential? Probably. But this tiny park, probably one of the smallest in the five boroughs, is where I live. And so I love it. Otherwise what kind of neighbor would I be?