The narrowest escalator in New York
This is the narrowest escalator in NYC!
Escalator at 10 Rockefeller Plaza
Have you ever wondered where the skinniest escalator is in NYC? An escalator that literally has no room to pass on either side? An escalator that is only able to accommodate a single-file line of passengers? Wouldn’t you love to see and ride one just like this?
10 Rockefeller Plaza
Well, you’re in luck because if you pass through Rockefeller Plaza between W 48th St and W 49th St (at 10 Rockefeller Plaza), through a set of glass doors lies the narrowest escalator in all of NYC. This escalator leads up to the street level from the Rockefeller Center Plaza dining and shopping center below ground. If you aren’t in the mood to eat or shop and just want to ride this escalator, you can enter the building at 10 Rockefeller Plaza and walk down the large spiral staircase and then take the escalator back up. There is a security person here at all hours but honestly, they don’t mind since the lobby here is adorned with a beautiful wrap-around mural by Lakela Brown.
Professional pogo stickers at famous NYC skate spots
Street pogo stickers in NYC!
I had no idea pogo stickers had a professional slant. My friend Greg Navarro filmed a bunch of athletes in the pogo stick sport at famous NYC skate spots and shines a spotlight on these incredible stunts.
Radiant Site: A wall of gold tiles at 34th St Station
Art in plain sight at 34th St-Herald Square station.
The MTA has a pretty extensive art program to bring life to the otherwise dreary underworld of the NYC Subway. Sometimes, the public art is big and in your face and other times it seems to hide in plain sight, like this piece called Radiant Site by artist Michele Oka Doner.
Michele’s work, completed in 1991, consists of 11,000 hand-made gold tiles spanning the entire length of a passenger corridor at 34th St-Herald Square station in NYC (near the ramps leading down to the BDFM platforms). Each tile was made at the historic Pewabic Pottery in Detroit and feature differing levels of gold shine; the darker ones at the tops and bottom and the brightest ones filling the center.
Next time you’re traveling through this station, be sure to look forward and up at this iconic piece!
NYPD Chevy Bolt electric car
Some photos of the NYPD Chevy Bolt electric car.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is rare, but the Chevy Bolt vehicle in the NYPD fleet is definitely uncommon. The NYPD has used several generations of the Chevy Bolt to introduce electric vehicles into their line-up for several years now but seeing the latest generation with full TRAFFIC decals is always neat. The car is just so small, a perfect replacement for the SMART cars the NYPD introduced a few years back and no longer really use.
What will be interesting to see is how long these Chevy Bolts last on the streets since Chevrolet discontinued the vehicle in 2024.
Healthcare CEO target fliers in Chinese
The healthcare CEO posters are now in Chinese.
The targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione on December 4th last year has sparked an odd campaign of retribution by some anonymous (and presumably angry) recipients of American healthcare organizations.
Today, for the first time, I saw the CEO target flyers in Chinatown, NY in Chinese.
Cheap way to make your own MTA Subway countdown clock at home
Here’s an affordable way to turn any screen into a Subway countdown clock.
There are a number of unique ways to have a Subway countdown clock timer in your own home, but many of them require a good chunk of investment or technical know-how.
My favorite one I’ve seen is this DIY LED matrix display that looks most like the actual countdown timers in the NYC Subway. But even this one requires quite a bit of elbow grease to get working.
There is also this Arduino Subway Clock that uses a tiny LED display but the final result, while providing the correct information, doesn’t quite look the part.
And there is this small informational display running on a Raspberry Pi that doesn’t quite look like any of the clocks in the stations but still provides relevant arrival information.
The cheapest most affordable option however, outside of the MTA’s official website, is this customizable website from Subway Here. If you have an iPad or a TV or anything with a browser, all you have to do is bookmark the page (or leave it on a TV screen all day long) and the subway information for any selected lines is shown. I’ve had this set up on an iPad and it works great.
Only NY x MTA Table Lamp
My favorite household item I got in 2024.
I have been fan and customer of ONLY NY for years and there is no product that excited me more lately than this MTA Table Lamp. The lamp is modeled after the station lights of yesteryear that can still be found in select stations across the system, showing the iconic dual-tone “M” above a green square indicating the station entrance.
It is wonderfully crafted and the perfect size for a table or shelf lamp. The braided cable with integrated dimmer is perfect and very high quality. My only complaint (if I had to really find one) is that the “M” looks like it is printed onto the exterior rather than screen printed (there are some banding lines that Only NY tells me in email is an unfortunate after-effect of the production). Anyway, I really love this thing in my house.
The Wall of Kindness on Essex St.
The Wall of Kindness encourages people to donate their old coats.
I was walking around Chinatown and the Lower East Side yesterday when I came across this “Wall of Kindness” located adjacent to a construction site. I nearly passed it entirely since it blended in with the construction office trailer.
I’ve never seen one of these “Wall of Kindness” things before but a quick search looks like its an on-going worldwide project to help those who are less fortunate. This one encourages people to recycle their coats on the hooks for other people to pick up if they need. Visit or donate on Essex St across from Seward Park.
I love these trucks!