A stroll through TriBeCa

I have worked in or near TriBeCa for over 10 years. I never get tired of being down there or taking a walk through the neighborhood. Before anyone gets semantic about the neighborhood only being the small triangle south of canal by Lispenard street, lets get our maps out. Since names of neighborhoods are only useful for real estate agencies and descriptives for its citizens, and since they are mostly innocuous and random, TriBeCa is the Lower West Side between the Highway and Broadway, and south of Canal as far down as Park.

Before the name was given to this area by the Lispenard Block Association it was either called the Lower West Side or Washington Market after the fruit market in the hood. You can find some evidence of the name in the same-named park next to BMCC or in a sign for the Eureka Fruit Packing sign of the Hope Fruit Co. on Harrison (I think it is harrsion). picture

No other area of Manhattan has changed more over the last 15 years and probably no other is such a paradox.

• Old "boring" looking plain red brick warehouses now hold multi million dollar luxury lofts.
• Dirty dive bars next to champagne lounges.
• Pot hole filled streets being land-marked because of the cobblestones.
• One of the richest public high schools in the country (Stuyvesant) connected by footbridge to a community college (BMCC).
• 1$ dirty water hot dog stand outside of a 5 star restaurant.

It makes sense to me, although sad and worried about the future of the human race, that TriBeCa is become so expensive to live (12th richest zip code in the U.S.). It is walking distance to the financial district. It is also, for those of you who care about such things, one of the whitest neighborhoods in NYC (82.34%).

During my walk yesterday, where i walked every street in the hood, i was interested mostly in the architecture. Little intricacies are everywhere: Old building freezes, address cornerstones (like above) industrial stars, an old bridge connecting 2 buildings in a former hospital over Staple street alley, a compass in the sidewalk, a subway map in the sidewalk. There are all glass building like the ones overlooking the Hudson and there are eerie skyscrapers with no windows at all (the telephone building). There are sidewalks like those on Worth that actually glitter and there are rooftop gardens that cost more than a Mansion on a New England Beach.

Taking a walk through TriBeCa is like walking through old New York, especially at night with the old lampposts lighting the street yellow. If you are in the right mood and the air is a bit foggy, you feel like you are in an old movie...and you might be if you accidentally walk through a movie set shooting with one of the local celebrities as its star.

Take a look soon, before long all the roughness of the neighborhood will be swept clean, the graffiti washed off the wall and gates put up to protect its citizens from people like me.