First Avenue: 92nd - 34th Streets

I didn't intend to only focus on First Avenue for my mini adventures / neighborhood walks, but I had a doctor's appointment recently that took me south down First from 92nd to 34th Street. I had walked north on First between 1st and 34th only a few weeks before, so it appealed to my organized nature to check out another large portion of the avenue.

Even though I work on the Upper East Side, a lot of the east side still feels largely unexplored to me. Every time I spend any time on York, First, Second and Third Avenues, I make a note to myself to get over there more often. Maybe it's partly due to the lack of subway lines (c'mon Second Avenue Subway!), but the east side feels more preserved and a little more old New York than the west side (at least UES vs UWS).

I am always drawn to neon—novelty shapes and scripts make me swoon—and anything handpainted, and luckily I saw a lot of both on my walk. My heart skipped a beat when I came across a standalone news stand that looked so authentically New York  and wonderfully generic that it felt like it was made for a movie set. I made note of a few diners to revisit (the Star Diner is never close!) and mourned the relocation of Gracie's Corner Diner to Second Ave—a move that unfortunately forced them to abandon their First Ave location and its perfect neon sign.