Tenements & Torres

I headed to the Lower East Side yesterday to take a gander at 97 Orchard Street, a tenement building that housed an extraordinary number and variety of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This building is unique because it remained unoccupied (except for the store fronts) between 1935 and 1988 when it was relinquished by the family and converted to a museum. That means there were artifacts galore.

My first impression was that the size of the apartments was about the size of Durf's and my place in Foster City. Not true, though. These apartments, at 325 sq ft, were about half the size.

While on the LES, I was also intent on seeing some bike polo at "the Pit" in Sara Roosevelt Park. Much to my dismay, the Pit was empty. Too hot, maybe? I doubt it, because there were (simultaneously) a basketball tournament, two games of soccer, a softball game, and hordes of tots playing in a camel-themed playground.

To cheer myself up, I walked clear across SOHO to Jacques Torres's chocolate factory to see if Skip's positive review of his product was accurate.

On the way back to the train station, I captured this:


I'm afraid my future coffee table book will have to be retitled to "New York Men *and* Women and Their Dogs."