We all have paths that take us through our commutes and daily lives, and I’m particularly fond of the path that took me home from my retail store in Chelsea Market every evening for a year. Leaving the store, I would walk down Ninth Avenue which becomes Hudson and turn left on Bleecker Street, following it until I turned right on Mercer. It cuts through the south of Chelsea, through the Meatpacking District and down to the West Village into Soho. I became enamored with the variety these neighborhoods offer.
As I leave the Eleni’s store and Chelsea Market, the first visible business is a lumberyard, which begins the walk that is charmingly full of so many different sides of New York. Looking west, you can see the High Line running for several blocks, the defunct and beautifully rusted elevated train tracks. There is evidence of the recent transition of the Meatpacking ... [more]
Eleni Gianopulos, Eleni's.
Murray Hill
Murray Hill is a small residential neighborhood whose good side is blocks of former carriage houses from the 20th century and whose bad side is lackluster post-war apartment buildings. Here you could have discovered an interesting apartment ten years ago; what remains today are lots of large residential buildings without charm or doormen, and local services that cater mostly to residents: small grocery stores, hardware stores, non-remarkable restaurants, and nail salons.