. My New York City Work Neighborhoods Never get …

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My New York City
Work Neighborhoods

Never get too comfortable.

In the 20 years or so that I worked in New York City, I had several interesting work neighborhoods. My first was in Greenwich Village at Fairchild Publications on 12th street between 5th Avenue and University, a block away from Forbes Magazine in one direction and a block from The Strand bookstore in the other. Some nights, I’d walk by Forbes and see Malcolm hopping on his Harley in the loading area, ready to head home, like me, to New Jersey. Anyone in the neighborhood wearing a tie—it was the eighties, and you wore ties even on Fridays—worked for Forbes or Fairchild.

After nearly ten years, my company moved to an office on 53rd Street and Seventh Avenue. That was at about the time I became interested in painting. I worked a block form the Museum of Modern Art, and a few blocks from 57th Street, where the big art galleries were interspersed between the high-end shopping places. Hacker Art Books was on 57th Street then. I worked in the new office only a few months.

My next job was in a building overlooking Madison Square Park at 26th Street. I sat on the building’s gargoyle level—about twenty floors up–writing for a small magazine run by a dysfunctional family. My stint ended, mercifully, in less than a year. It’s a nice park, though—quite underrated, really.

I ended up back on 57th Street, where I worked for eight years with one six-month break, during which I worked across the street from Penn Station on 7th Avenue (the Penn Station area was the worst).

But 57th and 7th was the best. My office was across the street from the Art Students League of New York, and I was back within range of MoMA. In front of my building, every day, on the same square of the sidewalk, was Opera Man, a street guy who sang phony opera with a canteen around his neck and a can in his hand. Adam Sandler got the idea for his Saturday Night Live Opera Man character from this man—he even dragged him onto the Conan O’Brien Show one night in the early 1990s for a round of dueling nonsense opera. Conan, by the look on his face, realized he’d gone too far letting this happen.

I was heartbroken when, in 2000, they moved the magazine I worked for to William Street between John and Fulton Streets–way downtown, three blocks from the World Trade Center. Sure, the Wall Street area, the oldest part of the city, has a lot of character. But it wasn’t my neighborhood. I was never bothered by all the tourists and high-end shoppers on 57th street—I lived for the galleries, the art school, the book store. Central park was nearby.

I figured I’d adjust to the new work neighborhood, but that it would be tough. It was very tough.

I started commuting every day on the ferry from Hoboken to the World Financial Center, which is directly in front of the World Trade Center on the Hudson River. I had taken the ferry sometimes when I worked uptown, but that meant a twenty minute subway ride once I got into the city. Now I had a five-minute walk to the office.

One sunny morning, standing on the front deck of the ferry, I was completely soaked along with four or five other people by a wave that the boat hit at a bad angle. That day I found out that the cheap clothing stores near my new office had a rather ridiculous selection of hip-hop garb to select from. We were far from Hermès. By the end of the day, someone at Human Resources sent out a memo setting limits on our summerwear choices. I believe that was the only HR policy prompted at that company by my bad behavior or luck.

I missed my 57th street world passionately at first. Especially at lunchtime. After a while, I gave up looking for interesting places, and went with the easy choices—park benches at City Hall, the South Street Seaport, or the World Trade Center. All three were actually very nice: A great view of the Brooklyn Bridge and a walk though the twilight era of the Fulton Fish Market down by the Seaport, a sunny green space by City Hall next to J&R Music, and concerts at lunch at the plaza at the World Trade Center. Concerts in the evening there as well.

Great concerts, actually. Dave Davies of the Kinks. Janice Ian. Always something surprising. I would sit by the big globe sculpture in the center of the plaza and eat my lunch. One evening I caught a concert by Laura Cantrell, a country singer whom I knew better as a DJ at WFMU, a listener-sponsored radio station in New Jersey. She has a magnificent repertoire of old radio show tapes and a real understanding of the good stuff. She taught me country music, something I didn’t necessarily even want to learn. She made it compelling. And there she was, looking real pretty and playing real nice. It was a beautiful evening in the summer of 2001, and I was carrying folded-up empty boxes home. We—my family, that is—moved that summer from Maplewood to Caldwell (that is another story of adjustment).

Once we moved, I figured out how to take the train from nearby Little Falls instead of the bus from Caldwell so that I could keep on riding the ferry—and never have to get on a bus. I began to really love the commute, which often ended with breakfast at the marina in front of the World Financial Center once I got off the ferry. I’d get coffee and a croissant and share my crumbs with the sparrows next to Donald Trump’s yacht. One of the boats at the marina had a small helicopter perched on top of it. I’d meander toward work at about 8:45 am.

By the end of the summer, the homefront was turned upside down with the move. My comfort zone, it seemed, was my work neighborhood, which I was finally getting used to. My turf included the marina, the big glass Winter Garden at the World Financial Center (there were concerts there sometimes and a few live Don Imus broadcasts in the morning), and the spacious concrete plaza at the World Trade Center.

Near my office there was also a satellite branch of The Strand, which was soon to buy the Hacker business and move it in. Galleries were moving downtown from 57th street. Things were absolutely coming together.

Photos top to bottom:
Corner of Bleecker and McDougal, Greenwich Village
Madison Square Park
A tower on 57th*
Brooklyn Bridge, WTC**
Ferry ride
Fulton Street Fish Market**
Stage at WTC
Laura Cantrell performs
The WTC Plaza

WTC I, II, III
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* Phillip Greenspan
** John Sutton