Union Square West

Union Square West runs along the west edge of Union Square Park from 14th Street to 17th Street.

Thanks.

Near 14th Street, nestled in the southwest corner of the park, is a statue of Mohandas Ghandi.

There are many statues in the city that I have not seen, but of those that I have seen this is one of my favorites. I love that it's in a garden, and also that it's fittingly humble and unassuming.

Here's a view of the statue with some of Union Square West behind it:

Meditate by the Ghandi statue, contemplate the power of nonviolence, and then pick up some office supplies.

Here's some of the block, facing uptown:

Some days there are green markets with many stands set up along this block. There was a market there on this day, but it was mainly around the northwest corner of the park, in the more distant area in the photo. During warmer months the market extends down to all that foreground area, and wraps around along the northern edge of the park too.

But there was still plenty of good stuff when I was there.

One of the stands was selling ostrich meat. No thanks. Ostriches freak me out, mainly because of their long necks. Emus too. However I do like giraffes. Hmm.

You might be able to see in the above photo that the red building in the background is a Barnes & Noble, which is this antiquated thing called a "bookstore."

If the fresh, quality food options in the market don't do it for you, there's a McDonald's lurking just behind it. Don't give in.

A bit hyperbolic, perhaps, but I agree that bread tastes really good.

There are several plaques along the ground on this block which are pretty interesting. This one is an old map of the area:

Credit to the artists:

One of the streets on the map is called Dead Man's Curve:

I guess you should be careful around there.

For some reason, I never connected the name Union Square with unions, but this plaque depicts the first Labor Day Parade:

 Here's some closeups where you can read some of the signs:

Here's two more interesting plaques on the block, related to the Statue of Liberty and a statue for Abraham Lincoln:

 Then there's this plaque, which confused me a little:

In case you can't read the caption at the bottom, it says: "By the 1870's, there were many hotels around Union Square." No offense to hotels, and I know this is part of the area's history, but isn't this topic a little less inspiring than the others? Did they make this one first and then realize they might have more impressive subjects for the other plaques? Just wondering.  

As I was walking along this block I noticed one of the buildings was called the Spingler Building:

I immediately remembered the name Spingler from the post I wrote about East 10th Street, which had a memorial for a woman named Elizabeth Spingler Van Beuren. As I mentioned in that post, her family lived in the Union Square area from the late 1700's into the early 20th century. I was pretty excited to see the name Spingler and make that connection. Go history! It's amazing to think that in the early years of the country, the Union Square area was still rural land and it was only the farthest downtown part of Manhattan that was considered the actual city. 

While I was on this block I met a nice guy who asked me about all my photo-taking and I told him about this blog. He said he had some photos of rats that he'd seen in Union Square and asked if I wanted to use any for my blog. I said no thanks, mainly because I couldn't tell if he wanted some money for using them, though part of me was very curious to see the pics. But don't worry, hopefully I'll come across a rat soon enough on one of these blocks and be able to share a nice rat photo with you. If that isn't incentive to keep reading, I don't know what is.