Snowicane Part II

The snow continues. This is 3rd Street. Bicycle got plowed in.

Broadway and 39th. This is normally a pedestrian walkway. My favorite part: no garbage pickup. That's what all those mounds are.

Beautiful Bryant Park covered in snow is now a hazardous place, in the event of the trees falling down.

Snowicane

It's so cold and snowy out even the fire hydrant on Sullivan Street needs a hat. There have been a few false prophets who've predicted snowpocalypses earlier this year. But this one is the real deal. All the treasures on the street corners are buried and all the schools are closed, but I'm out trudging my way to work.

I'm not alone though. All the doormen and handymen around town are busily scraping paths for me to walk in. Plows are out further towering snow on top of parked cars. Some of which, as you'll see below, wouldn't be making it out of their spots today anyhow.

Fire Breathing Dragons

I wish I knew more about these sprinklers/sand pipes/fire systems. They aren't traditional fire hydrants, but do they spit water? Does the fire department hook up to them? Whatever they are, these two (on the corner of Bleeker Street and Lafayette) always remind me of dragons. The red one I imagine to be the prickly boy dragon, but he's always side-by-side and breath-for-breath next to his best girl. If only they could sprout wings and take off...

Split Carsonality

Mild-mannered, soccer mom in an aging Chevy station wagon by day; sexy hot European dancer living it up in the city by night? This vanity license plate instantly caught my attention during a walk down Bleeker Street this past weekend. This car has to be more than 20 years old, but the owner (gotta be a woman, at least in my mind) definitely has champagne wishes and caviar dreams. You go girl! It's good to want things. Personally, I think I'd shoot for an all-electric Mini Cooper, but to each his own.

Street Furniture

Ah, trash day. The one day of the week that we all shove our refuse to the curb, hoping to disguise the events of our lives that caused us to throw things away. This dresser was likely replaced by a younger, prettier, new model that wasn't showing its misuse over the years. The former owners, which no doubt live on Thompson Street where I found this, tried to disguise the otherwise plain looking furniture by covering each drawer with wallpaper. But the handles falling off must have been the last straw, causing its current fate. It looks so sad sitting on the curb. I considered taking it home, but where would it go? There's simply no room. I guess my heart just goes out to strays.

Trashy Repair Job

There's no doubt that many pieces of New York City's roads could use some help. And I'm all for New Yorkers taking matters into their own hands. But who throws out a full, 60 pound bag of blacktop patch? At first glance I thought it was rock salt that someone had mistakenly laid on top of this ice patch on the corner of Bleeker and Sullivan, but closer inspection proved more confusing. It is strategically placed where the trash bin usually sits, so maybe it's someone's way of suggesting that the city's road work crews are trash? What do you think?

Growing Poultry?

I really wish I'd been around the day that a rooster was loose in the community garden on the corner of Bleeker and Laguardia. Pigeons--or rats with wings, as I call them--are a problem, so I understand discouraging those who would feed the birds. But a rooster in this small space would have been a sight to see, particularly in front of the grocery store that's there on the corner. I wonder if then bird ended up in the butcher's window? Perhaps it even came home with me to be served up as homemade fried chicken. Gives me the shivers...

Do you have strange animal-related signs in your neighborhood? Share with the group, please.

Biggest Rats You've Ever Seen

New York's got sewer rats, city mice, dirty rats, and church mice, all caught in the rat race. But I think my favorite is the Giant Inflatable Rat. I spotted this one this morning between 38th and 39th on Broadway. It wasn't clear which building was having a union rat problem, and from the sign that reads Asbestos Kills. Gothamist has a group dedicated to finding new sightings of this pro-union symbol around the city. But whenever I see it, I smile. I know it's meant to enrage me about some non-workingman-friendly conditions inside, but it's enormous balloon exterior just reminds me that we all take life a little too seriously.

Introducing Peripatetic NY

I'm not the first to fall in love with New York City, and, no doubt, I won't be the last. This vibrant and ever-changing town offers something for everyone. It can be as big or as small as you make it. Walking her streets can enlighten and inspire. And it's that inspiration, wisdom, and creativity that I hope to share in this cloud of connections. It may interest no one but myself, but that should be enough.

Here I plan to document my city, as I find it. I'll show off the strange and old refuse that could become the remarkable and new treasures of the next person to walk by. And to kick things off I'm showing off a recent sidewalk image I came across on a cold Sunday morning. It was on a corner of 5th Avenue, near 8th street or so.

I was with my sister, who I'm proud to say I've recently gotten to know a bit better. We were walking off a late and wild night, taking in the sites of my neighborhood. This angelic image caught my attention. I can only speculate as to the artists intentions, lifestyle, and ultimate vision. That speculation has kept me wondering about this person for the last couple weeks. Who was it? Did they intend for this chalk image to stay for a day? A month? Did it come out just as he or she expected and hoped? Did he or she know that I'd happen upon it? Was I somehow destined (if anything can be destined) to see it? And, if so, what was I to learn from it? Perhaps, I was meant only to learn that I should share my pondering with others. And so I am. If you know of this artist or image, please share with all of us.