Spring St Between Greene St and Mercer St

Like many of the other crowded SoHo streets, this block is an endless battle for sidewalk space between the street vendors and the pedestrians – where the presence of one enables the other.

The constant shuffling of people and cars through the area make for a near maddening experience when shoppers stop to purchase stuff from the endless tables setup along the edge of the curb. The cobblestone streets and high-end stores are nice and all, and the character of the neighborhood is certainly enjoyable, but there are many other streets around that are much less annoying to walk down.

Wooster St Between Prince St and Spring St

For a block that has a public art blog named for it, Wooster Street certainly didn't disappoint at first glance. The crazily-painted truck on the corner near Prince St sat like a testament to a lost era in New York history. However, like much of SoHo, that vitality is short lived in favor of high-end brand shops and boutiques.

Granted, the street and neighborhood are beautiful, and feature unique architecture that would be difficult to find elsewhere in the world, but you can't help but feel that this area was much more interesting a few decades ago — Back when the artists were just discovering the open loft space available, and as communities of people fought to save it from the wrecking ball of Robert Moses. It's fantastic that SoHo is still as classic as it's ever been, it's just unfortunate that it's been co-opted by such intense branding, and merciless crowds.

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Houston St Between Mercer Street and LaGuardia Place

Perhaps this goes without saying, but: there's a lot of trees in Manhattan.  I've really just started noticing this in the past few weeks, as things start to green-up, that practically every block has at least a few, if not several sprouting up through the sidewalk. Some blocks are nothing but trees. I find this interesting, since it goes against my normal mental image of New York (and cities in general).  If I were forced to illustrate a city block on paper, there's a very good chance I would have forgotten to include any greenery. Though I can assure you, that wouldn't be the case now.

Even a big, busy street like Houston is full of plant life - from the center divider to the surrounding streets and alleyways. I suppose I really shouldn't be all that surprised, but it certainly is refreshing to walk face-first into low-hanging, untrimmed branched with soft leaves rather than ones with brittle twigs.

Of course, this is the main dividing line between NoHo and SoHo...which is really quite striking. If you look down the right streets, you can see the immediate change as cast iron architecture and cobblestone streets take over. The adjacency to NYU create for some dead-end streets (and inexplicable signs) which only cause to increase the stark transition between the two neighborhoods.

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Greene St Between Grand St and Broome St

After going through most of the day with a generally overcast sky and walking around downtown, the sun finally broke through as I walked into SoHo.  Because of the low skyline around here, light is allowed to filter through the layers of rooftops and fire escapes before hitting the scarred street surface and intricate building facades.  The textures and colors in SoHo are truly unique.  The mix of industrial, classical and high-end all meld perfectly to give one a feeling of both authenticity and "Disneyland". In many ways it's all a show.  Retailers down in this area all take advantage of the quirky characteristics – even if it's completely off-brand.  They'll often use the harsh street scape (cobblestones, dirty and old buildings, rust, ironwrok) as a foil to play off with their stake and clean interiors.

While there are certainly many other blocks that offer far more in the way of shopping and activities, this stretch of Greene St is certainly no slouch when it comes to great architecture and places to duck into.

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