4th St Between Ave A and 1st Ave

How is it that a neighborhood generally personified by its unchanging landscape and classic architecture finds itself overtaken by a series of superblocks at the very last moment? These large housing projects feel so utterly out-of-place amongst the shorter tenements that dominate the rest of Alphabet City that it made me wonder whether or not the neighborhood began before or after Avenue A. In a strange way, I would feel better if these buildings weren't considered part of the same neighborhood but rather were simply a block away in a different world.

The middle of this block is home to a classic-looking New York school, P.S. 751, which is also known as the Manhattan School For Career Development. Right next door to the school is McKinley Playground. Now, maybe it's me, but would you name a place of recreation after a man who looked like this? Like several other streets in the area, this wide open block allows for an abundance of street parking, making it feel more like a garage than a street.