FROM CHARMING TO DINGY
Sana Karnawat
Integrative Seminar - Bridge 4 (Intro to Research): Urban Avatar Eric Dean Wilson November 26, 2017
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Starting from the intersection of Chatham Square and Worth Street, I looked back towards the end of Chinatown and then forward, towards the beginning of a municipal and official area. No more dangling lights, Chinese lanterns and narrow streets. Just a long stretch down towards Hudson, mostly under construction. Humongous government buildings looming over pedestrians, orange-and white-striped cones sprawled over the street and cement-mixers at almost every intersection: this was our view of Worth Street. Walking down the street, with closed sidewalks blocking our views, I felt a certain darkness creep over me. A few scintillating lights from the many windows above weren’t enough to light up the entire place. We looked into the buildings on each side and noticed how formal and proper they appeared. This street is home to a variety of the New York Government offices such as the Marriage Bureau, City Hall, Supreme Court and even the Sanitation Department. Most of these are clustered towards the Chatham Square end of the street. We crossed the marble-columned Manhattan Marriage Bureau on our right. In an article written by Fernanda Santos, First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris said, “We want to be the wedding destination of the world.”1 This marriage hall was originally an incommodious space with plastic chairs and old, cracked tiles. But with tight revenues and the desperation for tourism, the Bloomberg administration renovated it and created a 24,000-square-foot wedding palace to attract more couples. Involving the reconstruction of an old Department of Motor Vehicles office, this entire renovation was a $12 million project led by designer Jamie Drake.2 The construction of Madonna’s Los Angeles home and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s Upper East
1 Fernanda Santos, “Eloping to Vegas? Why Not Lower Manhattan?,” New York Times (New York, NY), Jan. 7, 2009. 2 Ibid.
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Side town house, contribute to his renown.3 The bureau consists of two separate wedding chapels on either side of the central rotunda. The east chapel has a sofa and walls featuring apricot and peach colors, while the west chapel has a lavender and purple finish. The bathrooms were turned into expansive dressing rooms, with full-length mirrors and long vanity counters lit by sunken concave wall fixtures. Carley Roney, founder of TheKnot.com, has indicated that Manhattan may be a threat to Las Vegas’ current title of “the wedding destination of the world.”4 We happened to be there on the day of a film shooting, preventing us from getting a good look of the Bureau. However, that testified the building’s gradual rise to fame. Right outside the Marriage Hall, on the street, is the site of Point 1 of The Five Points. Baker analyzed Tyler Anbinder’s book “The 19th-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum,” in an article of the New York Times.5 He titled it “The First Slum in America” because of its shocking history. Worth Street was a substantial component of The Five Points, which he described as a violent and crime-ridden community. The mixing of immigrants from different races, poor living conditions and immorality were blamed by various theorists for the existence of this slum.6 However, the residents grinded for money and saved up huge amounts to send back to their native homes. The slum was historically known for its diversity including Irish, African, Chinese and other traditions.7 Looking around, I could only see the same, plain concrete buildings with
3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. 5 Kevin Baker, “The First Slum in America,” New York Times, (New York, NY), Sept. 30, 2001. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/30/books/the-first-slum-in-america.html. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid.
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no remnants of the slum culture. It seems as if Worth Street’s history has been concealed and forgotten. In light of this slum, diagonally across the aforementioned point, beyond Thomas Paine Park, lies the African Burial Ground Monument. It is adorned with a $5 million black granite memorial sculpted by Rodney Leon. In another article of the New York Times, Edward Rothstein explained how in 1991 during the construction of yet another General Services Administration building on Worth Street, graves were discovered twenty-four feet below ground.8 With the further discovery of other bodies in that area, New York’s history on African-Americans took a new, unexpected turn. In all, four hundred and nineteen bodies were uncovered.9 A visitor center was constructed over a portion of the excavation, which now stands inside the ultimately constructed federal building. This building also houses organizations like the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Armed Forces Recruiting and US Citizenship and Immigration Services. No wonder this street looks so intimidating. The visitor center explains the site’s historical as well as personal significance. The uncovering of these graves developed a sense of connection and identification in the city’s African-American people. Hence, Rothstein relevantly said, “Cemeteries are at least as much for the living as the dead.”10 Isn’t it strange that life went on in this bustling city, without knowledge of this extremely significant historical event? It seems as if in the hurry to add to the concrete jungle, life (or the dead) interrupted and made the New Yorkers pause and think a while.
8 Edward Rothstein, “A Burial Ground and Its Dead Are Given Life,” New York Times, (New York, NY), Feb. 25, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/arts/design/26burial.html. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid.
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Worth Street has so much history and information to offer at every nook and corner. It’s disheartening to see that it has all disappeared and been completely replaced by these ordinary buildings. Just a block ahead, and we happened to be standing atop the abandoned Worth Street subway station. A scholarly article – “Abandoned Stations” by Joseph Brennan, an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Columbia, gives a complete and informative view of what went down with the operation of this station. Worth St was a part of the first New York subway.11 It was lengthened twice to ultimately accommodate the full length of a ten-car train.12 Worth St station lying very close to a busier hub – Brooklyn Bridge, did not seem as important once the Brooklyn Bridge station renovations were completed. With the new entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge station located almost at Worth St, Brooklyn Bridge essentially took over the functions of Worth St, ultimately causing it to shut down.13 The remnants of Worth St platforms can be seen from the 6 trains, running between Brooklyn Bridge and Canal St, especially if one looks outside the front door window. The extended platforms, now covered in graffiti and dirt, are also visible from the 4 and 5 trains, if no local train blocks the view.14 Going on, as the sun went down, the street looked tenebrous. Such a contrast from the gleaming lights uptown. More and more federal government buildings were to be seen on either side. A tremendously tall building on our left caught our attention. To me, it resembled some sort of machine gun sticking out of the ground. One of my peers guessed that it must be a prison. With only 6 window-like openings in the center of the front face, it really did look like a prison. My classmates and I, having the quivers looking at this structure, presumed that maybe dead 11 Joseph Brennan, “Abandoned Stations,” Columbia University in the City of New York, 20012002, http://www.columbia.edu/%7Ebrennan/abandoned/worth.html. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid.
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bodies are sent down the long, extended, hollow blocks forming the cornering edges. In accordance with our wild imaginations, we found that it is an undercover NSA building called “TITANPOINTE” spying on American citizens!15 Although the building is disguised as the AT&T Long Lines center, it definitely gives off mysterious vibes that match its actual resident. Worth Street appears to be an unlively, gloomy street. Although it’s home to the New York Law School, several government departments and corporate buildings, it lacks the charm that prevails in rest of Downtown. About twenty-two months ago, Worth St witnessed a dreadful crane collapse that killed a thirty-eight-year-old and injured one elderly and a 45-year old. The 565-foot-long crane’s wind sensor had alarmed the company of incoming strong winds.16 As the crane was being lowered in response, the workers somehow lost control and it crashed to the ground at a stretch of about three blocks.17 David Wichs, the 38-year old late victim, was a mathematician from Harvard. His widowed wife, Rebecca Guttman spoke very highly of him in his eulogy at a synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.18 “David was the happiest person I ever met,” she said. It’s disconcerting to read such terrible news and to find that the late victim had so many dreams yet to accomplish. My timorousness towards this street seemed to increase when I found out about this unfortunate incident.
15 Chris Peres, “The NSA might be spying on you from this creepy NYC skyscraper,” New York Post, Nov. 17, 2016, https://nypost.com/2016/11/17/the-nsa-might-be-spying-on-you-from-thiscreepy-nyc-skyscraper/. 16
Ray Sanchez, “New York City crane collapse leaves 1 dead, 3 injured,” CNN, Feb. 5, 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/us/new-york-crane-collapse/index.html. 17
Ibid. Annie Correal, “At Funeral for Victim of Crane Collapse, Recounting a Life, and a Love Story,” New York Times (New York, NY), Feb. 7, 2016. 18
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This street, rich in history, was named Worth Street in the honor of Major-General William J. Worth. He was the hero of the 1848 Mexican war. He was temporarily interred at Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, before being buried at the Worth Monument’s location on th
Fifth Avenue, Broadway and 25 Street.19 This small square is known as Worth Square, consisting of the grave and the monument. Worth monument is the second oldest monument in New York and the only monument other than Grant’s Tomb in Harlem that serves as a mausoleum.20 I wonder why this Square was not constructed on Worth Street itself. Maybe these are separate ways of commemorating General William Worth just like other places in the country such as Fort Worth in Texas and a large lake in Florida have been named after him.21 As we came closer to the end of the Street, towards its intersection with Hudson, all I could see were well-lit, spacious parking lots on both sides with a few dark buildings here and there. At the corner of Worth and Hudson is a parking lot with a fascinating story. As Newman Leigh succinctly describes in an article of the New York Times: every week, in its tiny kiosk, up to half a dozen men all brought together by their status as monthly parkers at the lot, gather to blow off some steam.22 Unofficially led by the lot’s manager, a Pakistani immigrant named Jeff Asghar, the members share their personal as well as professional problems over chips and drinks.23 Earlier, there was no heating or air conditioning and because of the lack of space they
19 New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, “Worth Square General William Jenkins Worth Monument,” Official Website of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, Accessed Nov. 15, 2017, https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/worth-square/monuments/1734. 20 Ibid. 21 Edward Wallace, General William Jenkins Worth: Monterey’s Forgotten Hero, (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1953), 187. 22 Leigh Newman, “Where Everybody Knows Your Parking Space,” New York Times (New York, NY), Mar. 11, 2007. 23 Ibid.
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had to sit on each other’s laps. Even though the members are successful owners of luxurious homes, they settle for this small kiosk setting with a space heater, broken chair, mini-fridge, microwave and a counter piled with chips.24 In many ways, the group has become a support system for its members. They have even helped each other in their respective family situations. According to Jeff, the club was founded in 1988 and has since been graced by many celebrities like Robert De Niro, lawyers Johnnie Cochran and Barry Scheck, and even John Kennedy Jr, who handed his Christmas tip in person.25 Leigh portrays the connection that these group members have developed and how it is such an important part of their lives by giving instances of their past together. I felt a certain happiness and relief seeing this particular parking lot at the end of our walk. It made me realize that even though much of the street’s history and culture have been buried and disregarded, newer traditions are growing and enriching the place. The parking lot group is multi-cultural after all. Despite my uneasiness in regard to this street, I’m glad to have uncovered information that I would’ve never expected to find out anytime soon. Worth Street is a mysterious and captivating place with a plethora of stories to offer that maybe someday Jeff and his buddies will add to.
24 Ibid. 25 Ibid.