From Coney Island to the Cloisters

The once nefarious Five Points intersection (of Gangs of New York notoriety) is now a park in the southwest quadrant of Chinatown. It lies across the street from the Criminal Courts Building where policemen take their morning smoke break on the steps while in the park Chinese women in sweatpants do group calisthenics. There is simply no trace of its history. The ears Gallus Mag bit off & kept pickled in a jar, the eyes Hellcat Maggie gouged out with her brass fingernails. Gangs like the Plug Uglies & the Dead Rabbits. It has all been replaced by a swingset & a drinking fountain.

McGurk's Suicide Hall no longer exists either. Where once it stood, across from the Bowery Poetry Club, is now a construction site where a bland office building is being erected. The ghosts of the numerous prostitutes who downed carbolic acid as a chaser will have to contend themselves with haunting office cubicles from now on.

I took the train out to Coney Island, most immediately familiar to me as the setting of Requiem for a Dream - notably the series of strange highrise apartment buildings with the see-through spines. The boardwalk was well-populated in the cloudy early afternoon, though probably not quite the same experience as it is in the evenings when the lights are ablaze. The Cyclone & Wonder Wheel loomed but weren't in operation. I wasn't hungry otherwise I would have tried a Famous Nathan's Hotdog.

After a long, long trainride to the Upper West Side, I located Pomander Walk, a private row of Tudor-style buildings viewable through a heavy gate. It was apparently built in the 1920s to replicate the set of the stage play which it was named after. Charming but inaccessible to those without a set of housekeys.

Grabbed the bus northwards, through Washington Heights to Fort Tryon Park & the grounds of the Cloisters, the monastery turned museum. Didn't actually go in the museum - I'll save that for another time - instead I wandered through the terraced gardens overlooking the Bronx to the east & the forested Jersey shore to the West. Very peaceful up there, should the urge to escape the tumult of the city strike. Good place to bring a book. And a sandwich.