3rd St Between 6th Ave and MacDougal St

   

A popular entrance to Greenwich Village, West 3rd Street has a rather boring mixture of tourist traps and old village stand-bys. Since it ends abruptly at 6th Avenue (and I don't believe the fine people at the IFC Film Center would appreciate being driven through, though you're welcome to check), West 3rd is just one of many crosstown routes which die at the start of the West Village.

The heart of this area is the West 4th Street subway station which acts as a major hub between 7 of the IND lines. There's only two exits for this huge station, and oddly enough neither are actually on West 4th Street, but rather Waverly Place and West 3rd Street. As a result you get a lot of people exiting down here by the basketball courts and making their way to the interior of the neighborhood by way of West 3rd.

Along the street a series of nightclubs do their best to lure you in with promises of no cover, or low minimums, though that's rarely the deal once you get inside. Old newsstands, record stores, and magazine shops have somehow managed to survive over the years despite the inroads being made by the likes of McDonald's and Ace Hardware. For me one of the more charming things is the Minetta Garage (named for the street to the south which it connects to) which has signage and lighting which is just vintage enough to not be kitschy.

If you can come down here at the right time of day, you wont encounter too much trouble in terms of crowds. However if you find yourself down here on a weekend after 5 o'clock, I wish you the best of luck because many a well-intentioned visitor has been lost to the crowds of drunken pizza customers.

York St Between Bridge St and Jay St

   

Walking along an empty steel fence, which from satellite photos seems to hold a large parking lot, this street is rather plain. The beginning of the block has a nice building with some ornate detailing, but it appears to be mostly-forgotten and un-loved.

The remainder of the south side of the street is home to a park, which seems as forgotten by the Parks Department as the rest of the street is to the general public. Imaginatively-named "Bridge Park 2", I'm left wondering where Bridge Park 1 is and weather or not it has an actual number assigned to it, or if that's only for these sequel parks. As for the space itself, it's really just a large open area with a few basketball hoops thrown up so you have some hint of activity. 

11th St Between 3rd Ave and 2nd Ave

   

This is the type of street I hope every person who visits New York gets to walk down at least once. Sure, there isn't anything of particular note, but to me it's more genuine than most any block you're able to find in midtown. The rows of mismatched apartments with their stoops eating into the already-narrow sidewalk, the small stores which sit close to the avenues, the churches and schools which hide in plain sight as you thoughtlessly walk by. It's a microcosm in just a few hundred feet, and it's what this city used to be filled with.

Now days it's harder to find simple block like this. I generally don't lament the new construction too much, but these plain-jane streets are so charming. They offer little-more than a place to live and a way to get from one avenue to the next…beyond that they're not a destination by any means. It's what you often see when you turn on Sesame Street or any other program which presents a semi-idealized version of urban life. 

Front St Between Adams St and Jay St

    

Just one of many streets to dip below an overpass in this neighborhood, Front Street is very deceptively-named as it doesn't appear to be on the front of anything. Straddling between DUMBO and Vinegar Hill,  the Manhattan Bridge represents a hard line between the two neighborhoods. Directly under the bridge you'll find a lone building for the DOT's Iron Shop, which seems incredibly fitting in that location.

There's no shortage of both old and new buildings around here. Likewise, there's no shortage cobblestones which have been lazily replaced and covered by other paving methods over the years. The result is a street that feels like a quilt of different materials that all must come together to offer a suitable driving surface for the 3 cars an hour which cross under here.

9th St Between Broadway and 3rd Ave

   

Somehow this near-desolate block, which begins with a Toys-R-Us Express in the shell of an old Blockbuster video, isn't as depressing as it could be. Acting more as a pathway between Greenwich village and the east village (with a quick stopover in Astor Place), these two blocks are comfortably nestled between the two bustling neighborhoods.

The first half is a dark street thanks to the looming presence of 770 Broadway, which seems to hold AOL, Nielsen and several other media companies under its roof. The second half is slightly more welcoming thanks to the inclusion of some smaller buildings, local shops and even a few rays of sunlight. Looking south you can spot some of the newer buildings that have been popping up around here and the Bowery. These alien structures are becoming more and more assimilated with the skyline everyday. I wonder how much longer it'll be before our vintage brick buildings begin to look like the out-of-place ones.

Water St Between Jay St and Bridge St

    

Feeling utterly forgotten, there's a ton of character on this block but it's mostly embodied by the avalanche of street art plastered on the walls. While it seems at least one building has been undergoing redevelopment, it remains vacant and the adjacent construction site was none-too-promising either. All the other buildings were in various states of disrepair, but they all seemed to at least be occupied to differing degrees.

The patchwork cobblestones which comprise the street made for a very bumpy ride for the handful of cars I watched drive down it. The sidewalk, too, was a bit of a minefield, requiring you to maneuver around construction canopies and potholes. And while there is nothing this street can offer the casual pedestrian in terms of a commercial presence, the dilapidated nature was more than enough to amuse me.