A monthly blog about the sensory experience of New York City

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

SIGHT: Seven random delights


In Sense & the City annual tradition, I offer seven sensory delights for the seventh month.

1. Neighborhood tree fencing

This replica of the Brooklyn Bridge is outside Ted & Honey Café in Cobble Hill.


2. Peeled pineapples cut into spirals

Beside their fully clothed neighbors, they look at once flamboyant and vulnerable, like a woman in eveningwear on a morning subway.


3. Spools of thread in streetside tailors’ windows

The tidy spools of every hue mounted on a pegboard encapsulate New York’s quick-fix economy. 


4. Fire hoses at the New York Public Library and Grand Central Terminal

Coiled behind a grillwork cage and shuttered in a wooden cabinet: like everything else at these institutions, immaculately designed.


5. Mail-carrier instructions

Lest there be any confusion. President Street, Brooklyn.


6. Chase Bank, Brooklyn Heights

Classic and imposing, the way a bank ought to be. 


7. Subway-platform candy stands

Nowhere else do nuts, candy, chips, and batteries look as beautiful as on a gray subway platform.