Everyone has been baking so much lately! Even I, a confirmed cook all my life, have taken to routinely putting hands to flour. Feels as though in our isolation we are finding solace in older human traditions. Perhaps hunting and gathering will be next. Roving bands spearing pigeons, at a 6-foot distance, of course.
As I plan my route for the day (Saturday 3/21), I chat with my Dutch lover. He’s out of work until June, but the government in Holland is sending his boss enough relief that all of their staff will still have income until then. “Holland is a great country in that regard,” he says. I love how much he loves his home.
Direction: South, down Broadway
Album:Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Soundtrack from & Inspired by the Motion Picture). Deluxe Edition.
Weather: Good light, but very chilly. In a time of such tumult, the capricious temperatures of March feel like a familiar handhold.
Lyrics jump out at me early as I jaunt across 171st Street to Broadway:
“Traveled 2,000 kilometers to hang out with us / What’s up, danger?” (Track 1)
Spittin off the track with a young defiance. The whole song reminds me of the Tik Tok swagger I’ve seen on my phone and on my walks- kids still partying, playing basketball in the parks, not being careful.
“I like tall buildings so I can leap off of ’em / I go hard wit’ it no matter how dark it is”
Sigh.
These first few blocks are well-worn paths for me — my usual steps from the apartment to the train. Unlike the more northern part of Broadway from my last essay, this area does show the worrying signs of aggressive gentrification; surrounding the Rite Aid, McDonalds, and the few remaining independent businesses are empty storefronts, dusty from months of neglect. An entire block- once consisting of a Gristedes, a pharmacy, my favorite shoe shine place, and my favorite breakfast place- sits blank, dark, voided. So far the only additions to the block have been several signs boasting of a robust security system installed within: no squatters here, please.
Across the street in a small park, flowers bloom on trees still wrapped in Christmas lights.
“I had to fight for the city / I had to fight for the people / You gotta do what all leaders do / Everyone here, we believe in you” (Track 3)
Most of the area surrounding Broadway between 165th and 168th streets houses the buildings of New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Born from the merging of New York Hospital and Presbyterian Hospital (obvious in retrospect, but I had no idea), the campus also contains the first academic medical center in the world: Columbia University Irving Medical Center. A decade before noted rich dude Edward Harkness broke ground on this seminal establishment, tens of thousands of spectators would flock to this area in their carriages (both horseful and horseless) to attend games inside a 16,000-seat baseball stadium that once stood there- Hilltop Park, home of the New York Highlanders, better known today as the New York Yankees.
The Highlanders, embracing their Yankee future, traveled down the escarpment to the Polo Grounds in 1912, and Hilltop Park was demolished in 1913. The land sat empty until Harkness and the hospital came for it in the 1920s.
I’ve only been inside the hospital to use their ATM, and one time to check out a particularly alarming heart palpitation (ended up being nothing). Fingers crossed I never need another reason.
It isn’t too far-fetched to suspect the hospital for at least some of the closings and vacant retail spaces. A story that made it into major outlets a couple of years ago wove a David and Goliath motif around Columbia and neighborhood darling Coogan’s- an Irish-themed pub that’s sat at the corner of 169th and Broadway for 30+ years.
The restaurant owners announced they would be closing after New York-Presbyterian hiked up their rent by $40,000 more per month. However, the neighborhood came together and, in a barrage of rallies, petitions, and celebrity clout (Coogan’s regular Lin-Manuel Miranda came by to help), was able to pull Coogan’s from the brink of obscurity. A rare instance of heart overcoming greed.
Around 6:07 p.m. I look up from taking a note down in my phone and gasp. The sun is setting, and the buildings on the east side of Broadway have found their light.
No matter what happens to us, earth continues on in quiet cadence with the universe.
A few blocks later I run into my friend Tessa! Smiling, static, and behind glass, because she is the spokesperson for H&R Block. She likes it when her friends take selfies with her posters and send them to her- I tried, but this time we find ourselves in has done me no favors in the looks department. My face is swollen and tired, at every angle. Oh well.
“I feel like a stranger to myself / And sometimes that feels dangerous” (Track 5)
At around this time in the album I begin to appreciate how good this soundtrack is for walking around in the city. Apparently the creatives that curated the album wanted it to be a representation of the kind of music a teen like Miles Morales (aka Spider-Man) would listen to. I think they nailed it, y’all. Issa bop.
“I don’t need no super suit / I’m feelin’ brave” (Track 6)
Every restaurant I walk past has their own means of adjusting. Caution tape across seating areas, overturned chairs, fleets of delivery guys smoking outside. Hastily crafted signs taped up with different versions of “Pickup or Delivery Only.” Never thought I’d live in a world where you can order margaritas and beer on Seamless. It’s like the opposite of Prohibition.
“We’re just two lost souls / but we’re fine with it” (Track 7)
I definitely chose the right time of day for today’s walk. The glimpses I get of the Hudson River/West Side Highway/New Jersey as the hills gently slope down west of Broadway continually take my breath away.
At 157th Street a box truck emblazoned with a freaking rad Darkwing Duck illustration brought me an obscene amount of delight.
I have no idea what the apple or the letters “TFP” mean. Sincerely hoping it’s not some kind of horrific business I should be reporting to the police, because that DW is SO DOPE.
Speaking of birds, two blocks later I had the immense pleasure of spotting several more instances of bird art, all as part of the Audubon Mural Project. I love this project so much, and took so many pictures, that I think I will be taking a second walk just on that topic, and dedicate an entire essay to my urban “birding” experience (You can find out when that essay goes out, and recommend albums I should listen to for the walk, over on my shiny brand new Patreon page!). I believe outdoor art will be one of our saving graces during this time.
“I’m just tryna live my life/ I’m just hangin’ in the fight” (Track 10)
Author’s Aside: This soundtrack might be the accidental anthem of people resisting quarantine.
“I ain’t never scared and I ain’t never horrified / I just look down at my Rolex, it said it’s the darkest times / I ain’t never terrified, I ain’t never petrified / You know I see dead people, I just tell ’em, “Get a life” (Track 11)
Case in point.
I’m surprised by how little time it takes me to walk to Hamilton Heights. Even in such a walkable city as New York, I don’t often normally hoof it for more than twenty minutes to get somewhere if subways or buses are an option. This walking project is bringing everything closer in my mind, tightening the loose seams holding neighborhoods together.
Here on the northern border of Hamilton Heights, 155th Street and Broadway, sits the dignified Church of the Intercession.
It’s one of my favorite places in the area- not only because of its beautiful Gothic Revival architecture, but also because I produced a concert in its main sanctuary once. That concert is still one of the coolest things I’ve ever done as an adult, from concept to execution.
Surrounding the church and flowing over across Broadway is the Trinity Church Cemetery, striking in the waning sunset. Trinity Church down on Wall Street established these burial grounds way back in 1842, about 73 years before Church of the Intersession was built, and it remains the only active cemetery on the island of Manhattan. Tons of famous folks are kicking it in there currently, including James Audubon, Cuba Gooding, Sr., a whole mess of Astors, and the guy who wrote “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”.
I walk through a weed cloud as I pass by the lofty gravestones on the hill overhead, which feels appropriate; cemeteries are the best places for getting high.
Not too much to say about Hamilton Heights itself, at least not now. It’s the northwest section of Harlem, and the area where Alexander Hamilton resided before he died (hence the name). My heart hurts whenever I go down there and see the beautiful brownstone homes I’ll never be able to afford, especially with my newfound knowledge that many affluent black families used to live in them. I want to do a more in-depth exploration of Harlem itself, so I’ll leave that walk for another day.
I pass by a barber shop containing one sole barber wearing a mask, and three barefaced customers. Most likely his last three before closing tonight as a non-essential business.
The soundtrack ditches me in the middle of the block between 143rd and 144th Streets, in front of a Chase Bank. Typical.
Before it does, though, a bonus track spits out one last rhyme with bold, Icarian bravado:
“Why would a star, a star ever be afraid of the dark?” (Track 15)
Ignorance hurtles us towards the sun, and our wings are melting fast.
Stay safe out there, everyone.
❤
-ks-
