Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Shift Shots 8/17/09-8/18/09

8/17/09
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
IMG_3871
This is not really during my shift of course, but I was so taken with my subway station on my morning, well, 2 in the morning, commute, that I had to get the shot, and it was good.

My guess: Ridgewood, Queens
IMG_3882

Jamaica, Queens
IMG_3894

IMG_3896

-Alright so I think I've just figured out that the pictures from Jamaica to the end of the day are tracing a route back towards Long Island City, Queens from JFK, with a major part of the trip on Metropolitan Avenue or near there.

Middle Village, Queens perhaps
IMG_3897

Williamsburg, Brooklyn
IMG_3898

ugh, tough one, I'm gonna guess Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Im probably wrong.
IMG_3902
the light with this seems off, and I was thinking of switching to black and white, only the off balance color seems even more nostalgic as if it was a 70's polaroid shot.

Maspeth, Queens
IMG_3905

IMG_3907
This section of Maspeth is all industry, a lot of towing and auto salvage stuff. Just off the highway, the neighborhood is great for stowing big trucks to quickly store stuff at the warehouses and ship it into Manhattan within 30 minutes. While so close to the big Manhattan skyline, the series of streets here are very isolated from any through streets, so very few people know the neighborhood exists. It's one of those places that you can see on the Long Island commuter train right when you get out of the tunnel under the east river, and feel like you've ben immediately transported to some bodunk town in Pennsylvania, or maybe you might just catch a glimpse of it as a passenger on the highway, but as a driver you'll never see it.

Sunnyside, Queens
IMG_3908

8/18/09
Long Island City, Queens
IMG_3931
I think of this particular new development section of Long Island City, as Queens' version of Manhattan's Battery Park City. They've taken this whole swath of real-estate and put up one building after another. Each building comes close to being the tallest in the borough which up until now has all been little houses, each of these has a doorman, and a parking garage. Most of the people who live here all wanted to live in Manhattan, that's my guess, but when they faced the only option of their luxury apartment being a few blocks from Times Square which is honestly still a very sketchy area at night especially in the Far West Side where all the luxury developments are going up, They instead got a cheaper place only a few minutes away from all that on the 7 train.

Now all that is good logic, but if your going to live in New York, you're going to have to take the good with the bad. I heard in an article that some residents here complain that the historic landmark Pepsi Co. sign keeps them up all night. Actually it may be even worse, it just aesthetically bothers the spoiled idiots, because the sign is turned off at night to save electricity. So to accommodate the residents they keep moving the sign to whichever parcel of land is empty, only to move it again when the next building goes up and those residents move in. Haven't they ever heard of "as is"? These are the same people who could've lived in or near Times Square where it is actually illegal for a business not to have a neon sign. This is New York City damn it! You can't have it both ways, and request to live in some sanctuary without any hint of the past around to pollute your sheltered mind.

2 comments:

Aron said...

I wonder if you've ever taken me to work. I'll keep watch for a taxi snapping shots, :)

NYC taxi photo said...

Well, it's very unlikely, but stranger things have happened, congratulations! and your blog looks really nice, I'll probably stop by and see your blog and look it over a little more as, well, i like the pictures.

the only workday I usually work is monday, so pretty unlikely I picked you up, but hey ya never know.