The Evolving Tree Bed

Back in March, I was walking across East 6th Street, when I saw this groovy tree bed:

Groovy tree bed.

What makes it so groovy, you ask?

It's the chain holding the birdbath in place:

Holding the birdbath.

Three days ago, I passed it again and noticed the bricks surrounding it. I wasn't sure if they were there last month, so I took another picture:

Another picture.

It turns out they were, but…

…and this is truly amazing: I took this picture exactly a year ago, to the day, of the same tree bed:

Same tree bed.

It's still surrounded by bricks, but it is different — it's narrower!

And less cluttered.

#eastvillage #treebeds #6thstreet #bricks #birdbaths #chains #clutter

Ditches

You don't usually see ditches when you're walking around the East Village, and yet, here is one, in the yard of the Village View Apartments on First Avenue, just above East 4th Street:

A ditch.

Look at all those bricks and scrap metal — you can't dig more than six inches before you hit debris from a previous building!

#eastvillage #debris #bricks #ditch #firstavenue #4thstreet #villageviewapartments

One Brick

Sometimes graffitiers spray paint entire sides of buildings, or walls, and sometimes they spray paint only one single brick.

Strange, no? And yet, here it is, on the corner of East 4th Street and The Bowery:

One brick.

It's not the white one, if that's what you're thinking. It's the one up and to the left of the white one.

This one:

This one.

Either the graffitier painted just this one brick, or the graffiti remover cleaned the entire wall except  this one brick!

Either is just as likely!

#eastvillage #4thstreet #thebowery #brickwalls #graffiti #bricks #spraypaint

Bad Bricklaying

I was walking across East 2nd Street recently, pondering the hole-in-the-wall situation in the East Village, when I noticed this area of bricks beneath some painted cement that was falling off the building:

Area of bricks.

The strange thing about these exposed bricks is that they're not the same color or size as the bricks above them; they're not even the same size as the painted bricks beneath them; they're not even the same size as the other bricks in their assemblage!

If you look at the bricks directly above the lintel, you'll see that some are broken, while others are turned sideways.

It's a wonder half of the buildings in the East Village are still standing!

#eastvillage #lintels #bricks #2ndstreet #cement #disrepair