Paladin had a chance to see his city this week, and like the story of the Blind Men and the Elephant, he saw only a tiny portion—but what he saw impressed him for its resilience and fortitude. New York is a wounded beast, but still a mighty animal, worthy of awe and respect.

1 FLAG OF SURRENDER JFK aka TRIBORO BRIDGE.

What you are seeing here is a small strip of Manhattan, upper east side, the Second Avenue. For those who don’t know Manhattan, Second Avenue is a pulsing artery running from crown to heel. Filled with grocery stores, shops, saloons, and restaurants the flow of humanity on this Avenue keeps the whole East Side of Manhattan alive.

What strikes the traveler first is that there’s no traffic at morning rush hour. Yonkers NYS Thruway approach is like this at 3AM BP (Before Pandemic), not 8AM during the rush.

2 EMPTY ROADS

And this is what rush hour on a Wednesday looks like:

3 RUSH HOUR

On a regular BP day — Before Pandemic — a commuter would hit a number of choke points, where cars would gather, bumper-to-bumper, honk, spume, growl and curse. Now . . . just a breeze. The George Washington Bridge Approach is always a blocked bowel; you could lose an hour here and neither crap, nor get off the pot. Now . . . hasta la vista, Baby.

4 CHOKE POINT BRONX GWB

The open approach to the Triboro Bridge is plain spooky empty, even on Sunday Mornings, Christmas Day this choke point is bumper to bumper, but not on Wednesday:

5 CHOKE POINT TRIBORO BRIDGE

And as you crossed the East River to Manhattan this is always a parking lot:

6 CHOKE POINT MANHATTAN UPPER EAST SIDE

On any regular day you could die of old age on Second Avenue Southbound. No longer:

7 SECOND AVENUE  RUSH HOUR

Yet some things never change, the homeless and visibly mentally ill:

8 BROKEN DOWN

And the Pigeons:

9 PIGEON

The Cornell Medical center complex BP – Before Pandemic – was a bustling hive of worker bees, now, a shadow of its former self.

10 CORNELL MEDICAL COMPLEX

This limo is either a really late night ride home, or a morning surgery:

11 LATE NIGHT OR EARLY SURGERY

Unless you’re walking by you can’t imagine what a welcome, bright and beautiful sight this is, an open convenience store:

12 ESSENTIAL

And the full shelves, even better:

13 FULL SHELVES

The little white paper signs say –WE ARE OPEN. So, the Doctor is in the House:

14 CONTINGENCIES

And whatever you do, Don’t Litter:

15 DON’T LITTER

Upside, to pandemic – no more packed elevators, instead you play the Elevator Hokey Pokey:

16 ELEVATOR HOKEY POKEY

But as for the sticky buttons, good luck with that:

17 NONSEPTIC SELF CLEANING BUTTONS

There’s a lot of Half-Mask going around:

18 HALF MASK

In another galaxy, far, far away Koreans Rule the Planet:

19 KOREANS RULE

And if it’s up to the Fruit Seller, the Big Apple is never gonna starve:

20 FRESH

But that doesn’t mean growing up is going to be that fun, when the ceremony of innocence is smashed:

21 POTTERY BARN FOR KIDS

Yet New York’s Gotta Pizza:

22 NY GOTTA PIZZA

And right in Patsy’s doorway, this aftrnoon’s Parm Heros (and I don’t care if the plural of Hero is “Hero Sandwiches”, whattayagonnadoaboutit?)

23 TODAYS PARM HEROS

They may have closed 400 Starbucks stores but not this Barista’s:

24 BARISTA

Vive La France, Vive La Vie et Le Maison de Kebab!

25 VIVE

And over at Mickey D’s, it’s “Next!”

26 NEXT

Yet what would Manhattan be without some artsy virtue signaling?

27 VIRTUE SIGNAL

Not much different all things considered, when people are grateful:

28 THANK YOU

Truly . . . If there wasn’t a New York, we’d have to invent it.

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All photos used in the post are the personal property of Paladin.

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