22nd St Between Park Ave and Lexington Ave

You know, with so many streets in Manhattan it doesn't surprise me that at least one of them is capable of hurling you an indeterminate number of years into the future. I'm not talking about some groundbreaking architecture, or example of municipal technology which exists here. No, I'm talking about the always-incredible School of the Future. Founded in 1990 (oddly enough, in the past) the institution is actually a very highly-regarded secondary school which is used as an example for others around the country. And why shouldn't it be? It consistently has 100% of its graduating class accepted to a college or university.

The School of Tomorrow (excuse me….the Future. Tomorrow would be too soon) actually has connections to two Silicon Valley companies: Apple and Microsoft. The school was originally started through funding presented by Apple and it is currently a mentor school for the Coalition of Essential Schools, which is in-turn funded by the Gates Foundation (which was founded by Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft). Is that an obscure enough connection? I believe it is.

The rest of the block is very typical for the Gramercy neighborhood in-which it lies. Many of the apartments have grand entrances and doormen who all like to give me funny looks as I snap my photos from across the street.

3rd Ave Between 22nd St and 20th St

   

Always offering up an array of mid-priced restaurants and bars, 3rd Avenue is a haven for the college-bound and budget-minded alike. A myriad of places to duck into when you feel your stomach growling share the street with your typical selection of local businesses. Just north of here the street changes from a 2-way to a 1-way street which can result in light south-bound traffic – but you still need to watch yourself since the north-bound cars can be pretty aggressive.

On the corner of 22nd you'll find Lyric Diner. Having attended the nearby School of Visual Arts for four years, I have fond memories of sitting here at 4am trying to nurse what would eventually become a hangover with cheese fries or chicken caesar wraps. Still today, whenever I find myself hungry and in the area, I'll always stop in for a quick bite. The food isn't amazing, but it's incredibly dependable and as close to a true diner as you can find now days. 

3rd Ave Between 14th St and 16th St

    

While the surrounding blocks may be more pleasant to walk down, 3rd Ave more than makes up for it with its popularity. Even though thousands cross the intersection of 14th and 3rd everyday, it's still rather anemic in its offerings. The southeast corner, while previously a bodega, is now under construction to become a condo. Across the street another bodega has been closed and now sits vacant, awaiting some inevitable redevelopment. The north side is no better, with a large private parking lot and a run-down Duane Reade. You'd think the influx of people from Brooklyn, the nearby colleges and readily accessible bus lines would have spurred this to be a commercial Eden. Instead the popular shopping spots are reserved for nearby streets.

Being extra wide, 3rd Ave is a popular location for street fairs during the summer. With somewhere in the neighborhood of 7900 every year, it's hard to not stumble upon one of these indistinguishable events. Wether its one booth selling Italian sausage or some other booth selling Italian sausage, you can be sure to find what you want! Also, if you're feeling too tired to walk the entire fair – that's ok – it just goes on an endless loop for 12 blocks, so you're not missing much.

Park Ave Between 17th St and 19th St

   

Filled with stores and restaurants that feed off the residual crowds from Union Square, this part of Park Avenue is a markedly different from the blocks that exist further uptown. Lacking the high-end corporations that dot the landscape to the north, these few blocks borrow a lot from the surrounding Gramercy and Flatiron neighborhoods.

Anchored by the W hotel on the corner of 17th Street, the remainder of the block is filled with a mixture of restaurants, none of which could really be described as affordable. The buildings are a mixture of old and new – with the latter style sticking out more with a few "sore thumb" examples.

The first place I lived in New York was a dormitory on 23rd and 3rd at the School of Visual Arts. I remember thinking at the time that Union Square felt far away. Believe it or not, I would often contemplate taking the Subway instead of walking down this part of Park Ave. What a twit I was.

23rd St Between 3rd Ave and Lexington Ave

While on a street surrounded by buildings owned by NYU, CUNY and SVA, you're very likely to run into students of some sort. However, while schools are very prevalent here, it's not entirely dominated the way Greenwich Village or the Upper West Side is; it's a more subtle takeover.  A 50/50 mix of new and old buildings keep you from getting a solid reading on the neighborhood's vibe. Up until just a few years ago the north-western corner of 23rd and 3rd was home to a series low-rise buildings which were in-turn home to a series of very handy bodegas – this is now a tall, glassy building which is  being used as NYU housing.

Along with the James Farley building in Midtown and Grand Central Station on Lexington, the Madison Square Station Post Office in the middle of 23rd Street is one of my favorite Post Offices. With a beautiful, stoic facade, you feel like you're entering some grand palace, and for the most part, that grandeur is continued to the interior.

It's worth nothing that the three Post Offices that I've mentioned are all confusingly named in their own right. The James Farley Building is better-known simply as the main post office building in New York - or colloquially as the Madison Square Post Office (thanks to it's proximity to the current Madison Square Garden). Meanwhile this Post Office on 23rd is known properly as the Madison Square Garden Station, which is nearly impossible to search for on Google since it'll inevitably bring you to the aforementioned midtown location – or even Penn Station. Grand Central Station is the proper name for the Post Office on Lexington Ave and 44th Street – the train depot next door is Grand Central Terminal. 

27th St Between 3rd Ave and 2nd Ave

Sometimes neighborhoods end abruptly, immediately giving way to the next part of town. Sometimes neighborhoods dissolve, allowing for a slow evolution of culture and architecture which muddies the lines between different areas. This block falls into the latter category. While I normally wouldn't considered the bar-laden territory of 3rd Avenue to be of the same world as the Kips Bay superblock land to the east, you can feel a very gradual transition occur here on 27th Street. A good deal of small tenement-style apartments still line the street, though a handful of larger project-style ones have moved in to take their place.

While trees provide a tremendous amount of shade on the already-narrow stretch, a large construction canopy on the north side of the street  makes the block seem downright dank. Emerging on 2nd Avenue to a dead-end, you can see why not too many cars are present, making this a rather quiet and residential street.