The last of the Meatpacking District holdouts

Gansevoort Market in late 2024

The last of the original meat and butchering plants in NYC’s Meatpacking District have accepted a deal to sell the land back to the city for redevelopment.

While I didn’t grow up in the Meatpacking District, the area holds a special place in my heart not too long before it became the upscale shopping and entertainment district it is known for today. When I was younger, I would often walk with my camera to this area of the Meatpacking District to make friends with some of the un-housed people calling the area home. Back in the 2000s, the Meatpacking wasn’t quite as dangerous as I had read about in decades past and it also wasn’t developed much until the boom that came with the High Line Park in 2009. During this period, I would walk around, talk to strangers, occasionally walk the abandoned rail line (High Line), and photograph the “grittiness” of the neighborhood. It was quiet then, nobody around to bother you, and honestly kind of nice.

Gansevoort Market in 2024

Soon, the last remnants of what I remember of this area from my own childhood will be gone, and the remainder of the memories of an even older Meatpacking District for some others will only live in the heads of past generations.

If you’ve followed any developments in the Meatpacking District in the last decade, you’ll know that this was a long time coming. Gansevoort Market stood at the epicenter of a grand revival for the Meatpacking, with Little Island on one side and The Standard Hotel and upscale shopping on the other side. It is, in my opinion, an unofficial extension of the West Village and in some ways, even looks it from the streets.

At this time, there isn’t a move-out date for these businesses at the Gansevoort Market, but now that the deal is done, you can be sure that they’ll slowly move out rather than wait for the final hammer to drop.

Discovering Bostwick: My Unexpected Stop in Georgia

Water tower in Bostwick, GA

I took a day-drive from Athens, GA to Madison, GA today with the Robinson family and on the way back I stopped by in a small post-industrial rural town called Bostwick. I’ve never heard of this place before and had no reference for its historical context, but it turns out that this sleepy pit-stop between cities was and still is a cotton-town!

While driving through, we stopped along the side of the road and met John Ruark of Ruark Farms. At first, I didn’t want to disturb him and his small crew as they operated heavy machinery in a cotton gin, but he saw me and my camera from afar and waved me in, telling me that I could virtually go anywhere in the facility undisturbed; I was shocked he wasn’t afraid of letting me in due to some sort of liability or safety concern.

John Ruark of Ruark Farms

Quality control checks at the Ruark Farms cotton gin

Inside the seemingly open-air facility, John casually led me through a tight maze of heavy machinery, all clanging and banging away loudly as cotton plants and seeds traveled through the machine lines and ultimately came out as giant compressed cotton clouds. The noise was deafening at times but the sight was incredible to witness (at least for this city boy!).

The final product at this cotton gin saw the freshly spun cotton tightly bound and bagged for shipment off to its next stop. Eventually, John tells me as he points to my sweatshirt, this cotton will become used in a number of textiles just like my clothes.

Fresh cotton from the cotton gin

Ruark Farms in Bostwick, GA

I witness John and his small team move nimbly through the factory, careful to keep perfect timing on certain machines to ensure quality control. Some of these men told me they had been working here for decades and that some of the machinery was more or less the same since the 1970’s.

Inside, cotton webs hung from every corner and light fixture and the sun lit up every cotton particle in the air. It was quite beautiful given the late time of day.

While the factory itself was a joy to walk through, the thing that stuck with me the most was just how seemingly trustworthy John and his team were with a random photographer showing up and deciding to photograph them at work without any prior notice. John trusted me and I am thankful he did.

Near the end of their work day, they powered down all their machines, closed up shop, and stood for one group photo. What a absolute joy to be connected to the people who make the cotton I use every day. As we all packed up to leave, John invited me back whenever I was in town — I think I’ll take him up on the offer!

Here I go (again)

Hello.

It has been a very, very, very long time.

I don't really have a reason for why my blogging took such a big hiatus but I think it had to do with me coming to terms with the internet itself changing. It's been such a weird place for me in the last few years with micro-blogging platforms and social media becoming the forefront of the personal identity. Name one platform and I've probably used it (well, except for maybe TikTok) over the years, all in the attempt to make some sense of the rapidly changing world of over-sharing and visual stimulation.

I got tired. I got tired of blogging quickly. I got tired of filtering through the immense garbage that was coming to the front of social media. My body and my mind just got exhausted from it all. It got exhausting and eventually, it wasn't fun anymore.

But I really missed writing. Not to you, the reader, but instead to nobody in particular. I miss just putting my thoughts down in a public place with no real intention of anybody reading it. I have this wild dream that one day, if all things are paid correctly forever and ever, that somebody will come across this site and discover all the great things I did (just a few years later). It's the old "StumbleUpon" feeling.

So here I go (again). Hello.