5 posts tagged “apartment”

People fish in the East River every day, just off Market Slip, near my apartment building. These days, they have some art to admire across the way.

Living downtown has given me the opportunity to explore the neighborhoods and sites that I saw much more of when I was a kid, on the weekends, when my parents would trek us down to the South Street Seaport or the World Trade Center's subterranean mall.

One unforgettable part of these weekend walks was the historic Fulton Fish Market, which in 2005, moved from South Street, downtown, all the way to Hunts Point, in The Bronx. Long affiliated with the mafia and the street stall vendors of the Lower East Side, Chinatown, and Italy, the fishmarket was an integral part of the bustle of the seaport, and its departure from Manhattan signified, for many of us, a changing of the guard in lower New York. The new facility in the Bronx promised better parking for trucks, larger space, and generally better circulation for the bustling fish hub; personally, I think the market was moved because it was an eyesore and a stinkbomb to tourists.

Today, the building's shell still stands along the East River, adjacent to the South Street Seaport Mall, about ten minutes walk from where I live. It's a bit sad, and an extremely nostalgic  place for me. And I'm convinced I can still smell the scales and guts and dampness of the old market if I close my eyes and try hard enough.

Sitting over a pint of Newcastle at the Half King last night, my Swedish friend Josefine, here on a three-month internship at Killer Films, told me the reason she felt she would never be able to truly let New York City into her heart.

It's because we've turned our backs to the water.

She told me she realized this on a stroll to the South Street Seaport from my apartment one morning. Smelling the salty harbor air for the first time since she'd been here, she thought to herself that this was where the city center should be, where old ships serve to remind why New York was founded in the first place. But immediately she turned around and was confronted by skyscapers towering over her, like "a bunch of huge rugby players huddled with their backs to the sea."

Josefine wanted me to explain to her why undesirable urban elements had been pushed towards the water—highways, industrial areas, low- and middle-income apartment complexes (like my own!). It was a fascinating conversation. Even with the initiatives to "green" the edges of Manhattan, why have we covered everything in concrete? Why does it feel like you are stepping off the edge of the world when you approach the East River from Chinatown or the Hudson from the West Village?

I tried to convince Josefine that it was different in the summertime, when free music wafts over the old piers and barges, and people sail from the various docking places around Manhattan. But it was not an easy sell. Thoughts?

(Photo credit for harbor photo)
(Photo of the two of us taken by KK)

My mother and her beau Billy gave me two gifts last week: a commemorative New York Football Giants mug (awesome), and the below object (also awesome, but a mystery). I do not know what it is. Neither do Meredith, or Ilya. Billy says if I can't guess, that I should "call him," but I think that means that I should know.

It is iron, I think. And heavy-ish. Guesses about its identity include: coal scooper. spice grinder. bath aid..?

Can you help us?

UPDATE (3/18/2008): I called my mother this morning. She says the vessel's for getting water from a well. Those of you who guessed that a wooden pole goes into the handle were right, although it'd have to be a pretty shallow well (more like a park fountain) for this thing to work as a water collector.

She also says she has two of them at her house. I have decided to use my mystery Chinese vessel as a plant holder.