Everybody Poops

When I have to pee, I either make a b-line for the toilet or I look at all the fat butts of the women in line ahead of me to distract myself from my throbbing bladder. I don’t usually spend time looking at or examining bathrooms, especially public ones, but learning how important “comfort stations” were to Robert Moses and his keen eye for architecture, I thought I would give the public bathrooms of my most frequented parks an examining eye, without the distraction of a full bladder.
Most of the big New York City parks have public bathrooms, and I realized that I haven’t even noticed the bathrooms at some of my favorite parks: Tompkins Square, East River, Washington Square, and Union Square. I was surprised to find that though they still showed signs of heavy use they were surprisingly clean, well heated, and were architecturally really beautiful. Walking around taking pictures of bathrooms got me some funny looks, but that only made me realize how seldom people pay attention to the bathrooms they pass by or use every day.

Bathroom talk made big news in 2006 when Bryant Park re-opened its bathroom after extensive 200,000 dollar renovations. Fully equipped with a copper vase for fresh flowers, mosaic walls, marble flown in from India, crown molding, and a full time attendant, it is definitely the nicest public bathroom in NYC. The bathroom was paid for by the Brayant Park restoration cooperation, not by New York City Parks and recreation.

Taken from NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/04/nyregion/04bryant.html

In an article about the Bryant Park bathroom in The New York Times Mr. Benepe the Parks commissioner said ” ‘We’re making a concerted effort to make sure park comfort stations are open, decent and clean,’ he said. ‘You know, we have an informal motto — we actually say this in our meetings — it’s our business to help New Yorkers do theirs.’”
The Central Park conservancy has also spent a large amount of money over the years keeping its bathrooms clean and elegant.

 

Next time you gotta go, don’t shy away from the NYC public bathrooms, take time to look at the exterior. And pay attention to the details, like mosaics or crown molding even if it’s actually molding.

 

Tompkins Square Park Exterior

East River Park Track bathroom and locker rooms

Bathroom at Washington Sq.

 

 

 

Washington Square Park Through The Ages

Photo Student Captures Subway Murder

Paola Nuñez Solorio, a photo student, instinctively grabbed her camera when she saw a man bleeding from his neck and hands staggering through the subway car with a menacing man lurking behind him.

ROBERT MOSES BUILT THIS!

atlantic yards–court upholds eminent domain

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/nyregion/25yards.html

Spot Photos: Two NYU Student Protesters Arrested

Maria Lewis, NYU student, is escorted to a squad car by police officers.

On November 19, a group of New School students and some NYU students held a solidarity demonstration for student protesters in UC campuses across California. When they began dragging trash cans into the street and obstructing the flow of traffic, police exited their cars to apprehend some of the protesters.

artist arrested for 42nd time, this time on the high line

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/artist-arrested-for-42nd-time-this-time-on-the-high-line/

Jews to the Rescue

View of the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters (Eastern PArkway & Kingston Avenue) via CrownHeights.info

Surrounded by the Jewish Children’s Museum, the popular Hasidic-based store Judaica World of Crown Heights, and the Albany Bake Shop (which caters all kosher food), there’s no doubt you will come to the hypothesis that you are in Crown Heights.  Straight off the 3 train stop at Kingston Avenue, the first sight of 770 Eastern Parkway, known as the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters, quickly gains any visitor’s attention. 

With the steady presence of two to three colorful emergency medical trucks that quietly lay along the side streets of the synagogue every day, many first-timers guess that an incident of grandeur details may have occurred; some assume some of the ambulance workers simply live on the street; and a few of the neighborhood (such as myself) anticipate another unexpected parade or celebration is readily to occur—all of which are incorrect.

Super Cool NYT video. Anyone interested?

Surviving the Death Race

Twin Towers Re-Molded

7.5 tons of New York infrastructure sliced through the waters of the Hudson River as the USS New York made it’s way to Pier 88 in midtown Manhattan. The 7.5 tons of steel that once supported the twin towers has been smelted and reshaped into the hull of this battle ship. It made it’s way from the where it was constructed in Norfolk, Va. to New York, arriving on November 2nd.

USS New York under contruction in Norfolk Va.

The ship is visible from the bike path along the waterfront where it sits in the water like an island a little ways north of the USS Intrepid. My friend and I trekked past it one night on borrowed bicycles with out realizing what it was. The path was mostly empty but we had to weave suddenly as a procession of a hundred fully clad Marines blocked up the street. Up ahead, soldiers with machine guns stood around guarding the ramp.
We rolled onto a peer a little ways up and looked out over the black water. In the Hudson, little blue and red flashing lights zipped across the water. My friend and I were trying to figure out what they were when a stalky 40-somehting man answered our question for us. “Coast guard,” he said. “Can’t be too safe. How would you like it if they blew that up? They’d have to melt the scrap metal from that and build something new.” He introduced himself as Quint and told us he was a construction worker and had actually worked to clear rubble after the attacks of September 11th.
Quint pulled out a joint and lit it. “There was no law after the attack. If we needed bandages for someone who was hurt, we just kicked in the doors at the Duane Reed. Can you picture that?” Quint eyes got animated behind his glasses when he recounted the details. “All of us was just covered in dirt and dust. I look over and my buddy, a big guy, he’s muchin’ on something. I say ‘what’s that.’ He’s got a lobster tail! We’re all covered head to toe and he’s munching on a lobster tail! I said ‘where’d you get that.’ He takes us to Locanda Verde, [Robert] Deniro’s restaurant. They were cookin’ them up and handin’ them out!”
When the rubble had been cleared, tractors and cranes pulled our salvageable steel to send to Norfolk for construction. The ship remained until Veteran’s Day before it steamed back.