When I drove a New York City taxicab in my college years, West End Avenue was just WEA on my trip log. A quiet, safe destination, with easy, traffic free driving along the wide, 4-lane, two way boulevard, and lots of big buildings.

If you read about West End Avenue, you will encounter words and phrases like “quiet”, “convenient”,” stable”, “safe”, “community,” or “Park Avenue of the West Side.” This grand boulevard is an extension of 11th Avenue and runs north-south from 59th to 107th Street on the Upper West Side, parallel to Riverside Drive (and Riverside Park), which lies one block West. Upper Broadway, with its plethora of shops and transportation, lies one block east – hence the “convenient” part of the equation. The tenancy is very stable, with many families living here from generation to generation.

Like its East Side analog, Park Avenue, West End Avenue is strictly residential, with virtually no businesses or commercial traffic except for trucks making local deliveries. There are no attractions here, and located so far west that very few, other than residents, ever find themselves here.

The neighborhood, however, was not always the genteel place it is today. From the New York Times:

For nearly 60 years in the middle of the 20th century, parts of West End Avenue were ”déclassé,” Mr. Salwen said. S.R.O. hotels, prostitutes and drug addicts became common on some cross streets. But by the 1980’s, the street had begun to recover its grandeur.

Like Park Avenue, the street is dominated by large apartment buildings. Most buildings here are prewar and over ten stories tall, dating back to the early 20th century.

From the Wikipedia entry for WEA: “The street is noteworthy for its almost unbroken street wall of handsome apartment buildings punctuated by brief stretches of nineteenth-century townhouses and several handsome churches and synagogues.”
I agree, but do find the “almost unbroken street wall” of these large apartment buildings rather imposing. Having spent all of my adult life downtown in Greenwich Village, I find these hulking structures to be somewhat intimidating.

However, prewar apartments are typically larger than average – once inside these solid buildings, the spaces are quite comfortable and make very pleasant, quiet residences. And although the buildings feel so out of scale with humans, a home is more than just a space in a building – it’s a personal place created by people. New York City has tremendous variety of residential structures, and whether small or large, short or tall, bright or dark, lavish or lean, in the Village or on WEA, inside every building in every apartment, for someone, there’s a place called home 🙂

There are a number of reasons why it has been nearly 4 years and I have not yet featured anything from the borough of Staten Island. It is far and inconvenient, and perhaps I was a little lazy. The photo explains another reason. The current fare going to Staten Island across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge is $11 one way (it is free on the return trip). That two-digit fare is just frightening. The bridge can be spectacular, however. See my posting on it here and an additional photo gallery here.

Staten Island can be reached via a number of ways. By auto, there are 4 bridges: three from New Jersey and the Verrazano from Brooklyn. There are buses via Brooklyn (and from Manhattan). Access from Manhattan can be had via the Staten Island Ferry (the fare is now free). I have taken the ferry many times, most often just for the vistas, which I highly recommend.

Staten Island is decidedly suburban in feel compared to the other boroughs, and it is the only borough without a subway system connected to the other boroughs – it is serviced by a fairly extensive bus system. But for real exploration of the hinterlands, it is best to have your own wheels.

Staten Island has had an interest in secession from the city for some time, and in 1993, Staten Islanders actually voted to secede from New York City. Implementation was blocked in the New York State Assembly. In 2009, a new bill was introduced by state senator Andrew J. Lanza from Staten Island.
New York City itself has dabbled with the idea of seceding from New York State. The issue of inequitable distribution of revenues back from the State is one of the primary motivations for these secession efforts. For Staten Island, the drama could well be called “If at first you don’t secede.”

For the time being, Staten Island is still part of New York City, and there are a number of very worthwhile things to see in this borough, as well as a few big surprises. You will see that here this week 🙂

Toll Note: Those using the E-Z Pass system get a discounted rate of $9.14, and Staten Island residents pay $5.48. There was some outrage in 2009 when the toll was raised, of course, but as we all know, you can’t fight City Hall or secede 🙂

I have seen fire and ice, and it was spectacular.

Sunsets are a bit like Japanese restaurants in New York City – everyone knows the best one. In the case of sunsets, everyone has seen the most spectacular at some special time and place. So I am not going to tell you that I have seen the best sunset ever. However, I will say that this was the most remarkable sunset I personally recall seeing in New York City. While taking these photos, a woman ran out of a neighboring building into the frigid cold with camera in hand to capture the fleeting moments. See my entire gallery of photos here.

After a day of adventure seeking with a friend, Red Hook, Brooklyn, was on our late-day agenda. We were not looking for a sunset, but as we approached the waterfront at dusk, I had a sense that something good lurked around the low-rise building known as the Beard Pier Warehouse. We explored the southeastern side of the warehouse, which was extremely nice, but I was getting antsy knowing that the sun was rapidly setting on the other side.

A UPS truck blocked our exit on the narrow roadway which flanks each side of the pier building. Waiting to back out of the one-way street was like watching the sands of time.

Have you ever driven around a corner or bend in the road where an extraordinary vista is suddenly revealed? This was our experience as we crossed a small alley on to the west facing side on Beard Street Pier and nature’s full glory burst into view. As I scurried to the water’s edge, I was equally stunned to see what at first look appeared to be an array of white glass – they were, in fact, smooth stones covered with a layer of ice. The red-orange sun illuminated the arched cast iron doorways and red brick of the pier building. The whole set looked like an installation art piece entitled Fire and Ice…

In my story on January 12, 2009, Small Achievements, I wrote of those small, nagging, unresolved questions, not quite big enough to aggressively pursue, but not quite small enough to completely forget. They raise their head when a particular situation recurs, whereupon, enthused by the moment, you promise yourself that this time you will absolutely put the mystery to rest as soon as you get home.
Of course, it is either then forgotten or put off to another time, unless you have a photo of the mystery you would like to feature on a website about New York City and, in fairness to your readers, you really must get to the bottom of this. Now you have that added impetus to get the doing done.

One problem, however, with sharing a vista like this one is how you would go about taking a photo while driving in a moving vehicle. It’s easy when you return from Brooklyn on a beautiful day, everyone is on the road, and your vehicle is not moving because traffic is at a standstill, briefly interrupted with some inching forward.

The bridges across the East River – Williamsburg, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queensboro – afford spectacular vistas of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Roosevelt Island, along with streetscapes, waterscapes, the Statue of Liberty, Governor’s Island, and an articulation of buildings of the skyline of New York as far as the eye can see.

Somewhere in all of this, there will be a glorious accident of perfect alignment. So it is with the vista from the western end of the Manhattan Bridge looking north, straight up this narrow one-way street, where you have a classic New York City juxtaposition: an unobstructed view of the Chrysler and Citicorp Buildings, framed by rooftop graffiti and the jingle jangle of the Lower East Side with a spattering of Chinatown. But the question for me has always has been, which street is that, so conveniently aligned?

A little online forensic work identified the mystery thoroughfare, which runs eight blocks from Division Street at the base of the bridge to Houston Street and is wholly contained within the Lower East Side: Eldridge Street.

Note: if you look carefully at the photo, you will notice a church on the right side – this is the Eldridge Street Synagogue, built in 1887 and a national historic landmark. It is one of the oldest synagogues in the United States built by Eastern European Jews. It is also home of the Museum at Eldridge Street, which presents the culture, history, and traditions of the great wave of Jewish immigrants to the Lower East Side with tours, exhibits, and public and educational programs.