Seemingly Ominous Warning - Near the Hudson Yards, West Side, Manhattan.
(Images via NYCDreamin Archives)
One way I can try to guage New York City, in lieu of the fact that I'm not there all the time, at best once for a week or so every year or so, are the fluctuations in the numbers of panhandlers and homeless people I observe on the streets.
July 2012, comparing to July 2010, the apparent number of homeless persons on the streets in New York City is, from my view, on the rise. In my daily, early morning wanderings, I'd see them everywhere, and depending where I'd wander, sometimes I'd see disturbing and distressing numbers of them.
The Mystery Cart (above). This shopping cart filled with recycleables treasured by the homeless "appeared" on the sidewalk, across the street from our hotel. It appeared to have been momentarily left behind. I was sure it would either (a) be sighted by another homeless guy wandering through the neighborhod, or (b) it would sit there for a day or so until the sanitation department picked it up, or (c) the guy who left it there would return to claim it.
Day 1 goes by. The following morning and mysteriously(!) the cart has moved - it is now on our side of the street, kind of off to the side from the entry to our hotel, but still firmly in the street in the lane where the cabs like to park in front of the hotel. There it sits, smoldering in the hot city heat for day 2. Day 3 dawns. The cart never moves an inch. Finally, on the 4th morning that we were watching this thing...it was gone when we got up. Not sure if the trash guys finally figured it out and grabbed it, or if the random homeless guy mentioned above previously finally located and then made off with the cart and it's valuable contents.
Then there was this pair. This first photo (below) was shot around 5:30am on July 4th, 2012, along 7th Avenue between West 24th and 25th streets.
Same couple (below), the following morning, July 5th, again, around 5:30am. This time I spotted them a few blocks north, just off 7th Avenue on West 27th Street.
This one (below) was just fucking creepy. July 7th, 2012, around 6:30 am. This was shot on 8th Avenue near 32nd Street. This woman (I think) was propped up slightly, against this still closed newsstand on the corner of the block. I did a double take, wondring momentarily, as I looked around at people passing by n the sidewalk, if someone had dumped a body! No shit! My confusion only lasted a second as I saw her(?) move ever so slightly as she exhaled a breath and inhaled another to replace it.
(Below) July 7th, 2012 - Early AM near Penn Station
(Below) July 7th, 2012 - Early AM, near Penn Station
July 8th, 2012, ear;y AM. Same couple from the top two photos, still a bit further north, now crashing in front of the closed-up Peep World on West 33rd Street, just off 7th Avenue.
...more July 2012 NYC, NY photos and memories coming soon!
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