The Street Teacher takes a Walk with Friends along the Hudson River!

Good afternoon!  I have been remiss - and away from posting for far too long - it is about time to update the world on the doings of The Street Teacher! 

Well, in Grace Court Alley in Brooklyn Heights - on Monday, election eve - we saw very seasonal displays of free expression!  

This city is going through a trial and test of strength - can we survive the stress of these calamitous times!?  

Well!  One way is to walk the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee to Washington Heights, as I did with three of my high school friends last Saturday (Halloween!), have an espresso at the Break Away Cafe at 71 Cabrini Boulevard, and follow the trail over and under the West Side Highway and walk along the Hudson River side - and be awed by the views! 

Okay!  Not exactly a beach maybe, but those rocks have been deliberately placed there by Ulysses Gryka, an Albanian immigrant who came here to study, but was intrigued by the rocks and the shoreline.  Some say he's created a sort of Hudson Henge, or that this is a sort of Sysiphis project because these stones aren't glued together - and sometimes they fall (or are toppled!), and he rebuilds them when he comes down from his home in North Riverdale.  

But last Saturday I took my friends to the Hispanic Society at W. 155th Street and Broadway to show them the magnificent paintings of Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida - and this is just a section of one of them.  They're 12 feet in height and over 200 feet in total length around the room.  You must see them! (See her smile!)

Of course, before that we also saw the Little Red Lighthouse below the Great Grey Bridge - and if you don't remember the book - well!  It's never too late!

My friend Joan was very pleased to re-make her acquaintance with the lighthouse - and especially on such a beautiful day! 

We walked by many Halloween decorations - and there were more than we could manage sometimes!

But we finally made our way to the Maison Harlem for out mussels and frites (with mayonnaise!), and we were sure to be suitably dressed! 

So!  Explore New York!  Have fun - and relax!  We will survive! 

What City is this? - it's growing so High and so Fast!

Yes, all one has to see is the skyline from Central Park: 

In the evening it seems even more scary!  but the taller building on the right - isn't even topped out yet.  It will be at 217 W. 57th Street, and will rise 1550 feet above the corner of Broadway and 57th Street, and for what it's worth will have a Nordstrom's Department store in the lower 7 floors.  There will be 137 stories altogether, with 179 condominium residences.  It will be completed "sometime next year" - that is, in 2020.
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But there's more!

On Third Avenue at E. 87th Street I saw this apartment building - not yet completed but just gaze at the broad details of the arches in the middle and at the top.  As if to make it seem of human scale!

It is at 1558 Third Avenue, or 180 East 88th street, and is to be "only" a 31 story tower, which will accommodate 44 apartments yielding an average unit size surpassing 3000 square feet. But keep in mind that the developers, DDG, and the architects of record, HTO Architects, are building a "contextually-minded building that improves upon the neighborhood architectural lexicon."  Whatever.

The building will have 31 floors, but will reach "only" 469 feet to the top.  High ceiling apartments.

But note that 'way back in 2016 construction there was stopped by order of the New York City Buildings Department on May 24, 2016, because that department's audit uncovered (as the NY Times described it):

"[T]he developers improperly created a four-foot-wide lot to avoid zoning regularities and build a taller structure." (New York Times, J. David Goodman, May 25, 2016)

Regardless, at that time upper-floor condominiums were already on the market and listed at more than $15 million.

There are not the only places where such tall buildings are being erected.  Even in the old Lower East Side hotels have been erected that out-scale their neighborhood by major degrees - of hubris?

Stay tuned!  Your correspondent will try to keep pace!

The New Year - and the Government’s Shut Down!

The Street Teacher’s Blog - Onward! 

From Brooklyn, Manhattan does seem far away!  But a trick of nature isn’t really a trick - Manhattan hasn’t shrunk, and we haven’t become giants, but some individuals in our world have indeed become bigger in their britches over the past year.

But we have new respect for the power and importance of our “little” city!  We stand up tall and make our voices heard.

What have I seen this past year?  Well, let me begin to remember ... I will be making installments over the next week!

On the Anniversary date of Trump's Inauguration, the Second Women's March in New York

"Don't let the bastards grind you down!"

Not Our President Ever