Thursday-Friday, March 14-15, 2024 – TO BE A STREET YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE BIG
THURSDAY-FRIDAY
MARCH 14-15, 2024
ISSUE # 1204
6 1/2 Avenue: Manhattan’s Secret Street
Tucked away amidst some of the
most famous addresses in the world
is New York’s only fraction of a
street.
ATLAS OBSCURA
You have probably walked on this mid-block street, halfway between 6th and 7th Avenues from 51st to 57th Streets
THE AVENUES OF MANHATTAN ARE some of the most famous thoroughfares in the world, counting 5th Avenue, Madison, Park, and The Avenue of the Americas among their ranks. But hidden between 6th and 7th Ave and running between West 57th St and West 51st St is a secret street rarely visited or recorded in tourists guidebooks: 6 1/2 Avenue.
Currently the only street with a fractioned number in New York City, 6 1/2 Avenue was given its official signposts in July 2012 by the Department of Transportation. The secret street was already well known to midtown workers who had long used the public spaces between 57th and 51st to cut through the city, avoiding having to walk around to 6th or 7th Avenue.
The thoroughfare is part of the over 500 areas in the city that are known as Privately Owned Public Spaces. These POPs originated in the 1960s when the city gave property developers incentives for creating public spaces as part of their new buildings. These privately owned public spaces usually took the shape of plazas, atriums, walk through arcades.
The 500 city POPs have received mixed receptions. Often the spaces are abandoned and make passersby feel as they were trespassing on private property and so the Friends of Privately Owned Public Spaces started an initiative to raise awareness, starting with 6 1/2 Avenue in Midtown. The Department of Transportation even created crosswalks and installed street signs to make it official. So next time you are strolling down one of Manhattan’s grand avenues, why not take a detour to visit one of its secret ones, just a literal half a block out of the way.
51st Street on 6 1/2 Avenue
Walking thru at night
TUESDAY, MARCH 19TH AT THE NYPL BRANCH
… WITHOUT YOUR VOICE, WE WILL LOSE THE Q102 — WHICH PROVIDES DIRECT, DAILY SERVICE BETWEEN ROOSEVELT ISLAND & QUEENS PLAZA, CONNECTING TO MANY BUSES & SUBWAYS BEWTEEN MANHATTAN, BROOKLYN & QUEENS — SERVING ROOSEVELT ISLAND FOR OVER 50 YEARS …
CURRENT Q102 BUS ROUTE
SEND YOUR COMMENTS TO THE MTA ON THE LINK BELOW:
https://platform.remix.com/project/d6368ff6/line/f7efc4d4?dir=0&latlng=40.75452,-73.93954,13.157
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SEND YOUR RESPONSE TO:
ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SKETCHES MADE BY EDWARD HOPPER FOR
HIS PAINTING “BLACKWELL’S ISLAND”
EYESORE OF THE WEEK
EYESEORE OF THE WEEK
Text by Judith Berdy
ATLAS OBSCURA
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Copyright © 2024 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
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