#Lost New York

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Pennsylvania Station, 1930s.

Photo: Moynihan Train Hall

[candont]

in the basement of the brewery we walked on the seats of carefully placed chairs to keep from sinking into the stale water leaking down for years since it closed

the roman candle bright fire balls shot and skimmed over the surface of the water more beautiful than when they try to reach towards the sky

[drownmeinbeauty]

LOSING GROUND

Once, at a dinner party I attended in Brooklyn, a guest talked about seeing baseball games at Ebbetts Field as a boy and then stopped and started crying. For those of us who remember now-gone places in the city, like the lobby bar at the Royalton Hotel, the sales floor at Alexander's, or the dining room at Florent, they remain powerfully present. An exhibit at the New York Historical Society called Lost New York catalogues some of the more prominent.

So much of the city's physical development is driven by finance that cyclical turnover, demolition and construction seem inevitable. Real estate practice is ruthless and even good architecture -- even undeniably great architecture -- gets caught beneath the wheels. The McKim Meade and White post office on Eighth Avenue was gutted to to create Moynihan Train Hall. The original Penn Station, the masterwork of McKim Meade and White, was razed in 1963 for today's Madison Square Garden. And that building was intended to replace a stadium in midtown that replaced McKim Meade and White's original Madison Square Garden, which was razed in 1926 for an office tower. It's a sad and costly logic.

European downtowns are dotted with centuries-old buildings that inventive designers have adapted again and again, over centuries, to accommodate inadequate insulation, plumbing, mechanics, and circulation systems. In New York City the Landmarks Preservation Committee fetishizes prewar (WWII that is) buildings, making it illegal to remove granite paving from the sidewalk and build penthouses visible from the street in certain districts. But in general Americans remains ambivalent about history. We tore down many of Frank Lloyd Wright's works, we're tearing down many of Paul Rudolph's works, and we'll tear down many of Frank Gehry's works, without compunction, as the land they sit on becomes increasingly dear.

Lost New York hints at other, deeper losses as land changes hands for political reasons. To create Central Park in 1837 the city claimed the residential blocks along Central Park West in the 80's that comprised Seneca Village, a thriving middle-class African American community. Leaders imagined a parcel of nature where the well-to-do could could to ride carriages and horses, and the working class could take walks. They thought nothing about the those who lived there and owned the land outright.

During the Depression those left without homes built small houses for themselves inside, forming a Hoovertown in view of the grand apartments along Fifth Avenue and Central Park West. They were removed forcefully by city authorities, who objected to the optics.

One thinks back to the primal trespass, when German trader Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan for the Dutch East India Company for 60 guilders from the Lenape, people who had no notion of land ownership. The city's contours are reshaped continually, strategically, by those in power, until others claim power over them.

Hooverville, Central Park, New York City, 1933. Photographer unknown.

[thepunkpanther]

HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK (1992) dir. Chris Columbus

[stars-bean]

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) dir. Chris Columbus

[simmyfrobby]

*And people are wrong about urban myths. Logic and reason say that these are fictional creations, retold again and again by people who are hungry for evidence of weird coincidence, natural justice and so on. They aren’t. They keep on happening all the time, everywhere, as the stories bounce back and forth across the universe ... Urban myths are alive.

Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad.

(inspo.)

[bladesrunner]

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) dir. Chris Columbus

[moonlight]

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) dir. Chris Columbus

[vivitalks]

"percy, you really don't wanna start with this guy" "he's starting with me!" he is such a new yorker

[nancyhanks]

LOST DOG: JOJO TUPAKI

Jojo ran into the woods behind Bread Alone in Boiceville, NY on Saturday, November 11. I found her sweater in the brush that day.

There were two sightings of her on Sunday the 12th in those woods, and four on November 14 on a rail trail that we’d walk on. She’s a rescue and extremely skittish. Please don’t call her name or make eye contact if seen; please contact us and we’ll be there in minutes. Please share far and wide in NYS.

[animusrox]

Home Alone (1990) dir. Christopher Columbus Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) dir. Christopher Columbus

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Michael Loew, Concert, 1928. Oil on canvas.

The scene is Lewisohn Stadium, which was on the campus of CCNY (City College of New York) between 136th and 138th Sts. and Amsterdam and Convent Aves. For years, the open-air venue hosted musical and theatrical performances and athletic events and was called "the city's summer cultural center." It was demolished in 1973 to expand the college's academic facilities.

Photo: 1st Dibs

[crystalclear97]

Paraganda for PLAYING GOD 🙏 

I made this super fast and late at night so go vote for Playing God at @dykehayleywilliams profile before it's too late!! @paramoreblr

[movie-gifs]

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) dir. Chris Columbus

[stydixa]

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Dir. Chris Columbus

[iero]

Oh no. My family's in Florida and I'm in New York. My family's in Florida? I'm in... New York?

HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK — Chris Columbus (1992)