The building on the left looks like an asterisk when viewed from above.
...with a headless chicken in it! Animal sacrifices are apparently not that uncommon in parks around the city (although this is the first evidence of one I've seen in person); it is often speculated that they are part of Santería rituals.
This attractive paint job lets you flee your burning building in style.
As I was walking down Prospect Avenue in the Bronx today, I noticed a Latin music store named Casa Amadeo that looked familiar to me for some reason. Then I remembered why: it was featured on an episode of Bronx Flavor, a supremely weird, exuberant, and passionate show that celebrates the culinary diversity of the Bronx. Watch the episode!
Mike is a musician and composer who has written almost 300 songs for well-known Latin artists. He used to work at Casalegre, a record store that was owned by Alegre Records, and he discovered several up-and-coming musicians, and signed them to the label, during his time there. He bought Casa Amadeo (formerly Casa Hernandez) in 1969, and he's been running it ever since.
For the record, I've seen a couple of other paintings that could have been considered memorials, but I decided they were either too small or too temporary-looking to count in the official total.
That's the 2 or 5 train in the background.
Fire department connection to a building's sprinkler system
I'm mostly posting this photo because a guy came out and told me I couldn't take pictures. That's right: he told me I was not allowed to photograph this pile of smashed aluminum cans from the public sidewalk where I was standing. It's not uncommon in New York (or many other places) to be told by a security guard, sometimes aggressively, that you can't photograph something on their property. But regardless of what these people tell you, photographing their property is well within your legal rights, as long as you're taking the photo from a public place.
Made from found materials and located right in the middle of the sidewalk on Fordham Road
In 1906, the Broadway Bridge (at the northern tip of Manhattan) was replaced with a new double-level bridge that would carry both Broadway and a new subway line extension across the Harlem River Ship Canal. The old bridge was still in good shape, so they simply lifted it off its pier, floated it down the Harlem River, and installed it here as the University Heights Bridge. The bridge was reconstructed around 1990, but its designation as a landmark required its appearance to be maintained.
A football field's worth of beer and soft drinks, and open to the public!
This is one of a series of five little street-end parks on the Harlem River in Manhattan, from West 202nd Street to West 206th Street, in the mostly industrial part of Inwood known as Sherman Creek. There's a boat launch in this park, just to the right of the photo. (That's the University Heights Bridge in the background.)
Hundreds of discarded Christmas trees being chipped into mulch
That's the little-used name of the mile of I-95 that runs across northern Manhattan. There are four nearly identical high-rise apartment buildings — the one you see here and three more lined up right behind it — and a bus terminal built atop the highway.
This facility houses families while their apartments are undergoing lead abatement.
Part of a larger mural entitled "Weaving Change Beyond the Shadows"
This label was added just for Ed Koch. Ridiculous!
A popular statue in the botánicas I've seen so far
