I was away for a couple days

So I am behind on email and everything else. The weather (and light) wasn't that great so the photos vary in quality. It'll be a bit before I restart blogging in earnest.

In the Union Square area of Manhattan.

Grocery store, Rego Park, 63rd Drive. NYC, because it has such great population density supports so much retail, as Jane Jacobs pointed out in Death and Life of Great American Cities forty years ago. People want more retail in their neighborhoods, but forget or fail to acknowledge that access to retail isn't a right, but a business proposition. That doesn't mean don't clamor for retail, but it does mean focus on what you can do to make your market more successful (or at least how to reduce the risk of opening new businesses in less attractive markets).

This isn't allowed in the DC subway system. I was rushing to the train so I didn't get info on her. Her voice reminded me a bit of the old DC band Dead Girls and Other Stories (does anybody know what happened to them), or Tuscadero (good sound, but their lyrics had little meaning) or That Dog.

The retail market is so strong in lower Manhattan on many streets that banks end up on viable second floors, rather than dominating ground floor spaces necessarily (and acting as vacuums on the street in the evenings, when banks are closed).

McSorley's. Many establishments oriented to serving the late-night crowd have signs here and there on their premises, often due to complaints by residents, asking customers to be quiet while out on the streets. I don't think they are that effective though. "Signs" like this--inserted into the sidewalks--are harder to ignore, and have more opportunities to communicate this important message.

In Chinatown.



New Year in Chinatown. Mott Street, Manhattan.

I'm glad I didn't have to clean up afterwards. (Mott Street)

A way to keep your treeboxes clean. (Although I did see a black plastic bag in one of these treebox protected planters.) Little Italy.

A dog in the store at Pylones. People in NYC take their dogs into stores. I'm not sure that I am that customer-centric....

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