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What we see and hear, feel and smell, taste and breathe, outside, on the streets, is what gives us our sense of New York City and what it means. And this is why we created Street Level. We wanted to witness people, buildings, and stories in their most elemental setting—on the streets. For our first issue we chose Grand Street because it embodies so much history and culture in flux. Grand Street was truly grand. In the late 1800's when the City Hall area was still the locus of New York City life, Grand Street blossomed into an elegant boulevard for shopping. Such uptown stores as Lord & Taylor first opened down there. Today, to walk along Grand Street is to witness the ever-changing cultural fabric of the city. It's to stand near the East River and see where an important ferry landing once stood, ushering people between Manhattan and Brooklyn, before the days of bridges, when water travel was everything. It's to see the tenements and remember the waves of immigrants that passed through here, first the Irish and then Jewish immigrants turning the Lower East Side into a Yiddish-speaking enclave. It's to witness the history of labor movements and see the possibilities promised by affordable housing as you pass the Amalgamated Houses or massive Seward Park Cooperatives. It's to walk through Chinatown's fruit and fish stands and sidewalks packed with Chinese immigrants carrying produce in red plastic bags. It's to remember the wave of Italian immigration that built Little Italy. Ferrara's bakery and DiPalo's cheese shop still prosper, but Little Italy has become even littler with Mulberry Street its main—and really only—axis. It's to walk west towards the cast-iron buildings of SoHo, which was once an industrial wasteland off-limits after dark until zoning laws changed allowing brave artists to find cheap rents. Now SoHo is SoHo—everything's high-end. Getting this off the ground has been both arduous and fun. We were intrigued by the looming French Baroque-style building on the corner of Grand and Centre, which housed the police headquarters back in the days of police commissioner Teddy Roosevelt. It was rumored to have an underground tunnel leading to O'Neal's bar so he could sneak a drink whenever he wanted. The building is now a deluxe apartment building that has housed illustrious tenants like Cindy Crawford and Calvin Klein. If you crouch on the sidewalk to peer into the ground level windows you can see where the basement jail cells were said to have been. We wanted to know more about the Bowery Savings Bank, a colossal neoclassical building designed by Stanford White, once the model for bank buildings across America. Recently re-opened as Capitale, an exclusive nightclub and event space, limos line the block to drop off partygoers who ascend a red carpet. Now, the bank is flanked by Chinese-run groceries and trinket stores. We asked ourselves how this part of Chinatown is handling the new club and how businesses are handling the post 9/11 economic downturns and the Grand Street subway stop re-routing. (The trains that stopped there used to connect Manhattan's Chinatown with its satellite community in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.) This part of Grand Street was once lined with bridal shops and we wanted to look back into their rise and fall. When the Sara D. Roosevelt Park, which is between the Bowery and Chrystie Streets, unveiled its new soccer field, serious soccer games started up and we were curious about the leagues, the teams, and the players. We also wanted to take in the arts at the Henry Street Settlement, which was founded by social reformer Lillian Wald in 1893. Henry Street's playhouse was once a breeding ground for New York City's theater, and is now an important venue for local artists—first time playwrights or performances ranging from hip-hop to Latin dance. Getting this off the ground has been both arduous and fun. We spent time walking Grand Street, mapping and documenting Grand Street. We met people, found places we had never been and saw something new in places more familiar. Many stories never came to fruition; some died in their infancy. As we release our first issue, we do so in hopes of starting a conversation. What do you, the reader, have to say about the street? And what will someone else have to say about that?
Heather Marie Graham P.S. A Great Big Thanks to everyone who helped us including our writers, Gabriel Squailia, Wendy Lee, Lauren Johnston, Laurissa James, Michael Shields, Dessi Kirlova, Laura Scott, and Mary Staub for her beautiful pictures. Thanks to our copyeditor Megan Grumbling (who also has finesse with the camera). We tip our hats and say "cheers" to Joseph Columbe for his time, his hard work and of course, his brilliant design. More thanks to Rob Boynton and Brooke Kroeger for their support and feedback, Laura Marmor for her time and input, and to Jay Rosen for being such a champion of Street Level from its inception to its birth. — hmg & az |
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