Author Archives: therealtamara

For an opinionated woman such as I, blogging is an excellent outlet. This is one of many fori that I use to bloviate. Enjoy! Comment on my commentary.

Attention grab

Some facades are more interesting than others. Or does it depend on the day. And where my attention is drawn.
The Polyclinic and the FIRST Public Library in NYC are at the same site. I love the Poetica Coffee idea and should rename both my poetry blog and my coffee trek accordingly. (The coffee trek requires searching for “coffee” on Walk with me, too and elsewhere in @therealtamara universe.
Flowers, today these astoundingly refreshing ones near E4th St, and these folks hanging by the side door near NYTW across from LaMaMa caught my eye.

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.

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]

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.

Queens didn’t look this tall when I was a kid living in the borough. I went from Qns Plz to just past the Pulaski. Shout out to the nice baristas at SweetLeaf Coffee at both ends of my journey. Good brew, too.

Used-to-be’s

This Starbucks was a bank. In fact, I think maybe a Chemical Bank? I remember that Burt went down to 23rd Street once upona to make a deposit.

This was a place to go ice skating. Perhaps come snowy season, it will be. Get a hold of how very many pickleball courts are squeezed in on the Wollman Rink.

One of these palatial emporiums were Wanamakers in the days of the Lady’s Mile. I think it’s now a Burlington [Mills]. It’s lovely to see how many of the beautifully designed buildings survived to decorate the West 20s.