In the neighborhood

We set out for a little romp in Astoria, walking first up 36th Avenue, then down Steinway to Ditmars Boulevard, and then down 31st Street until we were back where we started. The picture above is a mural near the Ditmars Boulevard N/Q station.

Steinway is bustling in most areas, but when you cross over Astoria Boulevard, there's a rather deserted little stretch that eventually gives way to row houses and pet stores and broader civilization. The shadow of the tree, and this dumpster-based protestation of love, won me over.

This disheveled cleaners/dyers is a few blocks away from our apartment. There are lots of strange and wondrous old buildings with great signs, many in advanced stages of disarray. I wonder how long these vestiges of the past will linger?

Lots more in latest upload to Flickr photo stream.