The corner of Jerome Ave and 176th Street in the Bronx

January 7th, 2021

January in New York City is always rough looking and the Bronx being what it is, it looks especially hellish at that time of year. This was shortly after riot season ended. There was a water main break and a lot of businesses along this stretch were flooded.

There’s been a lot of new development along Jerome Ave and I had this idea that the arson along these two blocks and the flooding shortly after were part of a coordinated effort to get small businesses to move out so bigger developments could move in. Honestly, it would be better if that happened. The area could use some new buildings with new businesses that aren’t car audio shops.

I don’t understand why there are so many car repair shops and audio shops along this stretch of road. It turns traffic into a mess, is noisy, isn’t attractive, and prevents more worthwhile businesses from opening up that would make the neighborhood more livable, like restaurants, cafes, departments stores, gyms… hell… anything at all but more car oriented shops.

Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. 2014.

Hopefully, this won’t be a once in a lifetime trip. It was incredible and overwhelming, honestly, but it was also a school study trip so it wasn’t an experience that I could share with my wife, which was a bit of a stumbling block to my full enjoyment of the sights and sounds of the country.

Visiting Israel was also a lot to process. I wanted time to think about the visit before I really wrote anything about it, and then I got busy and weeks became months and months became years. Now, it’s been 9 years since I was there, and I’m looking forward to going back if life permits.