ST. MARK'S PLACE

EAST VILLAGE, NYC

Established in 1990, Andromeda Studio 33 bills itself as one of the oldest and original bod mod shops in USA.

We hate tattoos, but love the colorful façade and characters at this walkup space.

ST. MARK'S PLACE

 EAST VILLAGE, NYC

Theatre 80 carries on a generational cultural function, which has helped to create the East Village from the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

When Theatre 80 was first envisioned and built at 80 Saint Marks Place, the neighborhood of the Lower East Side was a blighted area and the term East Village had yet to be coined.

We were among the first of the cultural institutions, which began the Lower East Side Arts Movement resulting in the neighborhood now being referred to as the East Village.

Beginning during Prohibition, 80 Saint Marks Place was a vital destination for performers of all kinds.

Jazz greats such as Thelonious Monk, Harry “Sweets” Edison, John Coltrane and Frank Sinatra performed here before Theatre 80 was established in the former nightclub. 

--from Theatre 80's website. There's also a gangster museum upstairs.

ST. MARK'S PLACE

EAST VILLAGE, NYC

St. Mark's Place, named after the nearby St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, is part of Eighth Avenue in Lower Manhattan. It’s named St. Mark’s Place between Third Avenue and Avenue A.

Still the land of misfits, it draws as many tourists and locals and the rents are no longer low.

A cloud of perpetual weed smell hangs in the air and competes with the scent of many Asian restaurants and other cuisine.

Referenced in the Replacement’s ode to the late Alex Chilton -- Checkin' his stash by the trash at St. Mark's place – the few blocks of history and discord also played host to great Broad City episode.

THE WORST PLACE TO EAT IN ALL OF NEW YORK

E.A.T. BY ELI ZABAR

This sewer hole is a pox on the Zabar family name.

I would rather eat a dirty hotdog that fell in the gutter and got kicked by a rat than give these swindlers my money.

Foul attitude, foul food -- avoid this like the plague.

Left the MET starving. Was on the way to Pastrami Queen. Wasn't sure if there would be a wait, saw a nice outdoor table (because it was drizzling and chilly) so I sat down here, lured by the Zabar name.

Big, big, huge mistake.

Waiter was rude and nasty -- not like hard edge New York it's part of the experience...no, just jackass.

I order hot pastrami on rye, mustard on side, nothing else on it.

Quite possibly the simplest order in the history of Manhattan lunch requests.

Well, this overwhelmed them and screwed me over.

Pastrami please? Waiter: In think we're out.

It's not even 1 p.m., how can you be out?

Waiter: I'll see what I can do.

Me, Dr. Brown's Diet Dark Cherry....Waiter: interrupts, no Dr. Brown, no anything but coke.

Coke Zero please. Waiter: We might have a Diet Coke left.

Food comes. It's maybe 2 ounces of pastrami. Maybe.

Both sides of bread drowned in mustard. I love mustard. This was drowned.

And easily 2 or more ounces of sauerkraut.

I loathe sauerkraut. Just do. Thus, my polite but emphatic order of meat on bread, deli mustard on the side please.

Maybe they put the ton of mustard and kraut to try to pretend to make it look like 4 or 5 ounces of something was in between the stale bread.

I should have walked off. Left a few sawbucks for the ounce of Diet Coke I'd swigged.

I ask about the mess on my plate -- the abundance of meal-ruining kraut and the ounce-plus of pastrami.

The waiter goes off on me, acting like I should give him a 40% tip for getting me the last of the pastrami (I do remember him taking great delight in telling the table next to me that I got the last of the pastrami).

I scraped off the kraut, leaving me with barely one ounce of meat. Oh, and the sandwich was north of 30 bucks. I could have had 10 times the amount of pastrami, brought the way I like it without sauerkraut -- and at about 20 bucks -- if I had walked a few more blocks to Pastrami Queen.

I ask for a pickle, to try to fill my belly. No pickle comes with it, it's like a few bucks up charge.

I really don't want to give these rip-off artists another penny, so I decline the add-on.

I finish, quickly, considering I got about 1/20th of what I paid for, and went to use the restroom. The other moron rude waiter inside gave me hell, acting like I wasn't a customer. Glad he did. Any modicum of professionalism would have given me a heart attack.

I went around the corner and spent more of my money (and half blew my diet) getting wonderful gelato for a fair price at Anita La Mamma del Gelato.

Between food + tip at E.A.T. (highway robbery) and food + tip at Anita (good deal considering the great product). I was out more than $50 USD.

Avoid this place. It exists only to rip off tourists in the vicinity of Museum Mile and locals that are 100 years old and have lost all use of taste buds.

 

THE FABULOUS CHRYSLER BUILDING

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CATHEDRAL OF COMMERCE IN THE WORLD

The Chrysler Building was the world’s tallest building for 11 months before it was surpassed by the Empire State Building in 1931.

THE FABULOUS CHRYSLER BUILDING

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CATHEDRAL OF COMMERCE IN THE WORLD

The Chrysler Building's stainless-steel cladding is ribbed and riveted in a radiating sunburst pattern with many triangular vaulted windows, transitioning into smaller segments of the seven narrow setbacks of the facade of the terraced crown.

THE FABULOUS CHRYSLER BUILDING

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CATHEDRAL OF COMMERCE IN THE WORLD

The Chrysler Building is renowned and recognized for its terraced crown. 

Composed of seven radiating terraced arches, Van Alen’s design of the crown is a cruciform groin vault constructed into seven concentric members with transitioning setbacks, mounted up one behind the other.

THE FABULOUS CHRYSLER BUILDING

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CATHEDRAL OF COMMERCE IN THE WORLD

Standing 1047 feet high, the Chrysler Building houses 77 floors, including a lobby three stories high.

THE FABULOUS CHRYSLER BUILDING

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CATHEDRAL OF COMMERCE IN THE WORLD

The Chrysler Building was designed by architect William Van Alen for a project of Walter P. Chrysler.

THE FABULOUS CHRYSLER BUILDING

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CATHEDRAL OF COMMERCE IN THE WORLD

The Chrysler Building is an art deco skyscraper on the east side of Manhattan at 42^nd Street and Lexington Avenue.

DISCARDED DOCKLESS SCOOTERS BLOCK SIDEWALKS, CURB RAMPS AND SAFE MOBILITY FOR WHEELCHAIR USERS

THE CITY OF MIAMI DOES NOTHING TO ADDRESS THIS CRISIS

The war on people with disabilities is alive and well in Miami — the adopted hometown I love that never loves me back.

Discarded dockless scooters block sidewalks, curb ramps and safe mobility for wheelchair users.

But the City of Miami and its Downtown Development Authority does nothing to address this crisis.

Dockless scooters and bikes endangering people with disabilities is the rule, not the only exception in Miami.

A lack of leadership and regulation means wheelchair users are blocked from access to work, home and urban mobility.

 There are dozens of ways of keeping dockless scooters from blocking and injuring people with disabilities, but Miami does nothing and enforces never.

Simple solutions:

*Create 1 scooter corral per block.

*Block users that dump them in dangerous spots.

*Confiscate scooters blocking access.

*Fine companies

City of Miami to people with disabilities: Drop Dead.

Lack of leadership and competency say it all.

When your city allows scooters and bikes to block curb ramps, sidewalks and bus stops — it is telling you it favors the profits of companies over your life, safety and dignity.

Sadly in Miami, where our leaders favor profit over people 100% of the time, these devices injure, endanger and block people with disabilities daily.

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

TIMELESS NEW YORK ART DECO SINCE 1931

Photo composed after dusk, taken from Hunter’s Point in Queens, looking southwest across the East River.

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

TIMELESS NEW YORK ART DECO SINCE 1931

Image taken from the observation deck of the Edge at Hudson Yards -- crosstown near the Hudson River, looking east toward Queens and the East River.

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

TIMELESS NEW YORK ART DECO SINCE 1931

We title this image “God and Commerce” – with the Empire State Building dwarfing the church in the foreground.

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

TIMELESS NEW YORK ART DECO SINCE 1931

 

The Empire State Building stood as the world's tallest building until the construction of the World Trade Center in 1970.

Following its collapse in 2001, the Empire State Building was again the city's tallest skyscraper until 2012. 

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

TIMELESS NEW YORK ART DECO SINCE 1931

The 90-year-old building has a roof height of 1,250 feet and stands a total of 1,454 feet tall, including its antenna. 

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

TIMELESS NEW YORK ART DECO SINCE 1931

The Empire State Building is a 102-story art deco skyscraper designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931.

CITIES MUST BE EQUITABLE, ACCESSIBLE AND INCLUSIVE FOR ALL

ALLOWING BRAND NEW BUILDINGS OR MAJOR RENOVATIONS TO OPERATE WITHOUT WHEELCHAIR ACCESS IS INTENTIONAL DISCRIMINATON

We live in urban Miami when we could live anywhere.

We support downtown and local mom and pop merchants.

Imagine what it feels like when a total renovation of a retail space fails to be wheelchair accessible.

This is discrimination.

This store in the heart of downtown at 280 NE 2nd St has zero access.

Miami politicians grandstand while capitalizing on the Surfside tragedy.

They go on TV to brag about how they will make buildings safe.

What about simple access for people with disabilities?

The Americans with Disabilities Act is in its 4th decade, so why are brand new spaces inaccessible?

It would be an atrocity to allow a building to deny access to a person based on race, ethnicity, gender, orientation.

But city of Miami routinely discriminates against people with disabilities by approving total renovations without wheelchair access.

The city should be sued.

MANHATTAN SKYLINE

FROM LONG ISLAND CITY

Blues, purples, reds, oranges and other pastels enhance the beauty of Manhattan at dusk.

MANHATTAN SKYLINE

FROM LONG ISLAND CITY

Even though the super-tall buildings are vintage 2021, there's something about the tone and texture of this image that feels like 1970s NYC.

MANHATTAN SKYLINE

FROM LONG ISLAND CITY

Sun setting over Manhattan's ever-evolving skyline of skyscrapers.

MANHATTAN SKYLINE

FROM LONG ISLAND CITY

Gantry Plaza State Park is the perfect waterfront location for photographing the Manhattan skyline.

The park, fronting the East River, is totally wheelchair-accessible.

MANHATTAN SKYLINE

 FROM LONG ISLAND CITY

The Chrysler Building -- an American art deco classic.

MANHATTAN SKYLINE

FROM LONG ISLAND CITY

Moon over Manhattan.

June 2021

First trip since COVID pandemic.

PROUD TO HAVE MORE THAN 300,000 READERS and to

 BLOG DAILY ABOUT URBAN DESIGN AND DISABILITY ADVOCACY

 

We stared this blog a decade ago – when we only had one email account.

It was before we Tweeted several times a day, made Facebook posts all the time and shared Instagram stories plus LinkedIn articles.

We have made more than 3,000 posts.

We remember when we celebrated 15,000 unique visitors to the site.

Now we have shared more than 1,500 fine art images taken around the globe – showing the best in travel, town planning, inclusion, equity and accessibility.

We have taken government leaders, big business and others to task for failing to make the world wheelchair-accessible and barrier-free to all.

We have serialized national magazine cover and centerspread stories, enhanced with exclusive added information and images we took with our own digital SLR.

The combined content would fill three to four full volume nonfiction books.

The insights have influenced hundreds of urban designers, transportation engineers, town planners, landscape architects, sustainability experts, architects and policymakers.

It has shared dynamic theories on universal design, inclusive mobility and environmental justice.

Stay tuned for more.

 

MANHATTAN SKYLINE

 FROM LONG ISLAND CITY

A slight thematic blur in this shot across the East River taking in Midtown to Lower Manhattan.

PEPSI COLA NEON SIGN

LONG ISLAND CITY

The sign, visible from Manhattan and the East River, was built in 1940 and originally installed atop PepsiCo's bottling factory nearby.

PEPSI COLA NEON SIGN

 LONG ISLAND CITY

The Pepsi-Cola sign is a neon sign at Gantry Plaza State Park in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City. 

THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT IS ENTERING ITS FOURTH DECADE

THAT’S A MAJOR NEWS STORY

It would be nothing short of unjust, in this era of heightened awareness, to report on every aspect of inclusion 

— with the exception of people with disabilities and the landmark ADA.

THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT IS ENTERING ITS FOURTH DECADE

THAT’S A MAJOR NEWS STORY

We must press on. We must protect the ADA and hope for more.

Inclusion is the name of the game in America. 

Every right-minded, good-hearted person is peacefully marching, voting with their dollars and making changes in their workplaces and personal behavior to ramp up equality.

THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT IS ENTERING ITS FOURTH DECADE

THAT’S A MAJOR NEWS STORY

I am happy we have the ADA. 

When it passed, did I think the built environment would be 100-fold more accessible after 30 years of it on the books? 

Yes.

Am I deeply disappointed that sidewalks, parks, pools and other public spaces — as well as restaurants, retailers, hotels and taxi/rideshare vehicles — are still routinely inaccessible to my wife and others who use wheelchairs for mobility? 

A disgusted, resounding yes is the unfortunate answer.