2nd Avenue: 92nd-34th Streets

One of my doctors' offices is located on First Avenue at 37th Street. I had an after-work appointment recently and it was a beautiful night so I decided to walk from 92Y at Lexington Avenue and 92nd Street. I've done this before and walked down First Avenue, so this time I chose to walk down Second Avenue (Third, you're next!).

I had about an hour, which wasn't really enough time and by the end of it I was nearly jogging to make it to my appointment on time. I walk fairly quickly, I think, but I'm constantly stopping to take photos and criss-crossing the avenue whenever I see something that catches my eye. I'm never really looking for anything super specific on these city walks, but there are things that I will always love: novelty neon, hand-painted signage and anything that looks like old New York to me or makes me laugh.

I would eventually love to take walks like this around the entire city (although maybe just Manhattan is more realistic). Taking this enormous city in tiny slices like this is so much fun to me—the city can be so overwhelming that giving myself constraints (however arbitrary) always helps me focus. I notice things I would probably miss otherwise—like a table for two set precariously over a sidewalk hatch or a fake greenery backdrop only somewhat succeeding at obscuring a construction fence. 

Recently we were having dinner at P.J. Clarke's, a restaurant that has been in business since 1884, and I mentioned that in New York it seems as if businesses are either a hundred years old or brand new—there's not much middle ground. I've already been here long enough to see longtime businesses close (and in some cases be demolished completely) and I'm getting more used to change—but that doesn't make it any easier to know that relics like the hand-painted teal and gold Louis Mattia lighting store sign will inevitably be replaced soon by something far less special.