Meet 99th Street
After the short respite that was 98th Street, devoid of almost all businesses, I was excited to get back in the game with 99th Street. I was immediately rewarded with the sight of El Barrio’s Artspace, a spectacular community project that turned an abandoned school building into living quarters for artists, studio space, and event space for art institutions. A block later, I encountered Gong (Lost Gem), a Thai restaurant known for its herb-based dishes created by Chef Itt.
On the West Side, I visited St. Michael’s Church, a breath-taking building with an enormous stone steeple. It is one of the few churches in the city that has resided on the same spot since its establishment in 1807. When it was first founded, the neighborhood was known as “the Bloomingdale District” and was entirely rural. As always, it was an intriguing mental exercise to imagine farmland and trees in the places where there are now apartment buildings and car-filled streets as I made my way west to the Hudson River.
