TheRealTamara

Bloomingdale’s Country

You may not be old enough to recall when a swath of the Upper East Side around the department store was dubbed per my titular lede.

The Palm Beach setups are scenes inside Bloomingdale’s. In leaving the great state of Bloomie’s you might grab any of the many Qns or Bklyn bound trains, or for that matter the 5 to the Bx. It’s a mini hub.

Serendipity- love the name, the word itself, not crazy for the lure the tourists’ vibe- is definitely in B country.

Did you ever hear of a realtor so specifically aligned to its market? A first for me. BTW, the Roosevelt Island Tram is a few doors east of this ecclesiadtical Space for Rent.

The Zen Studies Society is on the block, and has been long-term, which Fox Studios vacated. Catch the M66 on the corner to get over to Lincoln Center.

Where’d you go?

Last week, there was a crowd from the Art Students League painting the building. That was my inspiration for taking these pictures from the across the street vantage.

Post show tacos at Tacuba; an interesting glass structure that has a quality of undulating; far west 53rd is full of attractive buildings.

Nabes change

It was The Green Kitchen for the better part of 45 years. Then it closed. It popped up some 10 blocks away in either direction. I heard there was one on Roosevelt Island for a while too.

Soon, this diner space will reopen as a Sushi joint.

77th betw York & 1st, 68th on Lex [Hunter College]

Roosevelt Island

This little village of an island has lots of amenities, many fancy condos, a Main Street, a major Park, The Four Freedoms, watched over by NYS Rangers, and the nice, clean feel of being nearby and faraway.

Designing Qns

I can’t seem to stop showing off LIC

Views from Qns & RI

Phew

This was a long walk

Sights and sites and even some plaques that might be cited: an arrival on Roosevelt Island

The history is fascinating. I suggest you look it up. It was Hog Island [yes, those kind of hogs]; it was Blackwell Island and before those Minnehanonck. It was also Welfare Island on which there were an asylum, a smallpox hospital and penitentiaries.

In 1973, it was renamed for FDR. Now, a park built in his memory occupies the southern tip. Nicely designed and lushly landscaped it is called The Four Freedoms Park after a January 1941 speech.

You catch waterside views of Manhattan & Queens on RI. The ivy covered ruin is the Smallpox Hospital [circa 1856-75]. The grounds of Four Freedoms Park are lush with springtime. Families of geese are on the slopes.

I caught the Queens bound Q102 on Roosevelt Island and rode all the way to Jackson Av at Queens Plaza. I walked the hefty distance til I reached 1040, the NY Irish Center. My friends LM and her hubs were joining me for what would prove a genuine treat: an Irish reels and jig mixed with Brazilian Samba.