The nephew is in town. Kris Storey, my only nephew - the son of my sister - is making his annual pilgrimage to the States from Germany where he's working, saltating with a dance troupe in the city of Mannheim.
Mannheim is on the Rhine River, not far from the border with France.
This time Kris brought his girlfriend, Miriam, with him and we had the opportunity to meet her and spend time with them. Miriam works in the fashion industry in Germany. In her few days in New York she had already fallen in love with our city and was eager to see more.
We decided to meet them at the subway in the Village. We would give them a guided tour of some our favorite New York sites.
The first thing we did was to grab a parking spot that miraculously appeared (this was a weekday and parking spots are difficult to impossible to find) on Thompson Street near Houston Street. We walked to a little cafe that Stacey and I have used as a destination for our bike rides for years - Once Upon A Tart, on Sullivan Street in SOHO.
As we were walking, I was talking - telling Miriam the derivation of the place names (SOHO as in SOuth of HOuston), which way the streets run and how they define neighborhoods, the history of SOHO and its designation as the Cast Iron Landmark District. The latter is due to the remarkable number of cast iron buildings that grace its streets. These were to be unceremoniously torn down in the 60's by Robert Moses' proposal to build an east-west highway smack dab through historic SOHO (which, in those days, was a center of light industry and not the chi chi fashion district we all know today). Fortunately for our city, the great activist and people's champion of preservation, Jane Jacobs, rallied thousands and beat back Moses' plans. The expressway never saw the light of day.
A short walk brought us to Once Upon A Tart where we enjoyed cold soup (the day was hot), sandwiches and salad. A lovely repast. Then we were off for a walk around SOHO, making a grand circle - down West Broadway, then east on Spring Street, up Broadway and back on Prince and to our car.
My nephew Kris - at Once Upon A Tart.
Here's Miriam (spelled "Mirjam" in German).
Ah, sweet bird of youth...
We pointed out that most New Yorkers never look up as they go about their business. But if you want to see the history and beauty of Manhattan then one must look up to see the fantastic archictecture of the edifices that line her streets. It seems that builders tried to outdo each other, such is the variety and extravagance that were lavished on the construction and design of New York's buildings.
Always remember to look up as you walk along New York's streets.
The tour guide tells the tourists: "This is as far as I can raise my right arm."
Looking at architectural gems on Greene Street, SOHO.
Now that's a beautiful tour guide!
Plying the streets of SOHO.
It was late now, after four, and rush hour would be upon us any minute. We decided to drive to Brooklyn and continue our tour there. So across the Manhattan Bridge we flew and then drove right under it to check out another new and trendy neighborhood - DUMBO. Miriam could not believe that it could possible have derived it's name from the phrase "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass." DUMBO is a gritty, cobblestoned, narrow-streeted industrial pocket that sits on the East River looking across to the Manhattan skyline. For decades it languished, its warehouses and loft buildings empty and run down. Then developers seized on it, promoted its spaces as industrial chic and transformed it into one of the hottest new areas in Brooklyn. DUMBO was the center of the infant Brooklyn back in the 1800's when businesses and residents needed more room than the confines of Manhattan could offer. So across the river they went and the new city of Brooklyn was founded on the rim of the river. It didn't extend very far and even today the streets in that area retain the aura of a compact little town on the other side of the river: Main Street, Water Street, etc., as if they were the city and beyond it were farms and forests. Indeed, that was the way it was back them. Not till the subway extended throughout Brooklyn and out to its distant ocean shore did the little town grow up into the fourth largest city in the country!
Old industrial buidlings (now multi-million dollar loft apartments) at the corner of Water and Main Streets - DUMBO.
The Empire State Building is seen through the arch of the Manhattan Bridge in trendy DUMBO.
A new park is slowly taking shape on Dumbo's shores: The Brooklyn Bridge Park will extend from Atlantic Avenue to the Manhattan Bridge. once upon a time, this area was lined with bustling docks that carried the wares of America to distant shores in Europe. With containerization the docks moved to New Jersey and the Brooklyn waterfront crumbled with disuse. It's only now recovering as it's put to new use for parks and residence with fabulous water views.
Fabulous views of the city (and other items) from the new Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Sweeping panoramas from the new park.
Looking up river - the Manhattan Bridge and beyond it, the Williamsburg Bridge.
After DUMBO, we drove through other wonderful neighborhoods that comprise Brownstone Brooklyn - the rim of Brooklyn that has been rediscovered. People are moving in droves to what the New York Times has called the "hottest borough," because it has so much to offer - it's low rise, very green and often has the aura of a smaller, quieter town with real neighborhoods in comparison to "the city," (as Manhattan is referred to). Add to that the wonderful architecture of a bygone era that has been so well preserved, the culture offered through its museums, theaters and concert spaces, its open-air parks and its great new restaurants and you have a very desirable place to live and work.
We ended up for some refreshments and rest at our house and then set out for dinner in another old-new Brooklyn neighborhood: Williamsburg. We ate at Sea - a Thai restaurant set in a huge, industrial space - we could only imagine what might have inhabited this building in another era. The food was great and inexpensive.We ended the day by driving our guests back into Manhattan where they caught up with some friends.
Miriam at Sea Restaurant in Williamsburg.
Waiting for Pad Thai.
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