January 10th, 2012 3:00pm
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Once one of the seedier parts of Manhattan, Times Square was cleaned up in the mid-1990s, with Mayor Rudolph Giuliani overseeing the closing of the porno theatres and pressurising the drug dealers and ‘squeegee men’ to relocate elsewhere.
Although it’s been Disneyfied and sanitised into a tourist-friendly cash-till, Times Square is still a fascinating and exciting place to walk through. Here’s some photos from a December 2010 twilight ramble through the area.
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December 21st, 2011 3:00pm
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We saw broken brollies in Brooklyn and snapped off spokes in SoHo as we battled though a fierce New York rainstorm last Winter.
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November 28th, 2011 10:30am
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After enjoying an excellent coffee at the Bedford Hill Coffee Bar in Bedford-Stuyvesant, we decided to walk the 1.7 miles to Brooklyn Museum, neat Prospect Park.
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November 24th, 2011 4:39pm
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A short walk along the boardwalk from Coney Island lies Brighton Beach, known locally as ‘Little Odessa’ due to the high level of immigration from Odessa in Ukraine.
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November 24th, 2011 4:31pm
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I’ve always been drawn to Coney Island, a faded seaside resort in southern Brooklyn facing the breezy Atlantic Ocean.
Once a thriving retreat for New Yorkers, the area has been slowly decaying for decades, and worrying new big business plans look set to remove any remaining charm from the seafront. Here’s some photos from my visit last year.
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November 2nd, 2011 4:15pm
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Here’s the remains of the famous Parachute Drop in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York.
Standing 262 feet (80 m) tall and weighing 170 tons, the amusement ride was once known as the ‘Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn,’ and was built for the 1939 New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens. It was moved to its current location in Coney Island (then known as Steeplechase Park amusement park) in 1941.
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September 1st, 2011 2:32pm
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Curious street scene in SoHo, New York, December 2007.
[More New York photos]
August 3rd, 2011 3:00pm
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An uncertain fate awaits New York’s famous Chelsea Hotel, as the building closes its doors to guests for the first time since it opened in 1894.
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It’s the birthday of one of my best mates today, so in his honour I’m posting up seven snapshots from the streets of his beloved hometown, New York.
Happy birthday Jim!
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The New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn is a great place to visit if you’re in New York and have a bit of an interest in old trains, mechanical things, old maps and transit memorabilia.
Located in the decommissioned Court Street subway station in Brooklyn Heights, the museum costs $6 to get in and lets you wander around old station equipment and step onto vintage cars ( ‘cars’ being what us Brits would call ‘carriages’).
Scroll down to see some more pics from our visit.
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![July 4th: Happy Independence Day 2011, USA [New York photos]](http://www.urban75.org/blog/images/july-4th-usa-07.jpg)
Seeing as today is Independence Day in the US, I thought I’d get in the mood by posting up a small selection of photos from my New York visits over the years.
The Welsh connection
There’s a strong (and little known) Welsh connection here too. Twenty per cent of the Pilgrim Fathers of America were Welsh, and almost half of the signatories to the American Declaration of Independence were also Welsh or of Welsh heritage. One in fact, was born close to my home city in south Wales, with Francis Lewis claiming Llandaff as his hometown [source].
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June 24th, 2011 11:32am
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I’m well chuffed to see one of my New York panoramas now being displayed on the walls at Netherlands’ busiest airport, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
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The High Line offers a fabulous walk through the heart of lower Manhattan, with the park being built on the tracks of a long abandoned elevated railroad route.
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I spotted this crazy collection of spider-like chimneys stuck on the side of a building in New York’s lower Manhattan.
[More New York photos]
It’s been over five years since my favourite bar in New York burnt down, and I still really miss the place when I’m in town.
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