Looking South

No place on earth is more familiar to me than this. I've blipped from the same corner, but looking East, because there's a nice view of the city skyline that way. This view (47th Street, looking South from Baltimore Avenue) is encrusted with memories. It's part of my One Street.

One the corner at right is Lee's Deli, which is too small and cramped to qualify as a real deli. the owner is a very nice fellow but he has resisted any overhaul of the place in the 20-odd years since he bought it from Cha and covered "Cha's" with "Lee's" on the sign. Cha was a very nice lady. The food there is always good.

See the lottery sign on the sidewalk outside Lee's? It sits on a steel grate which ventilates an electrical transformer. Around 1995 the transformer exploded, knocking a man down. He was taken away unconscious by an ambulance, but I never heard what happened with him --I did not know him.

Next is a plumber's storefront, then a (closed just now) dollar store which begins the Fu Wah family business strip. Next is Fu Wah Grocery (great sandwiches and a good selection; handy to have nearby), and then a tiny Vietnamese eatery, then Vietnam Cafe, which is a full-on restaurant (and a good one --try the lemon grass seafood soup).

The restaurant stands on the site of the 5-story Warrington Apartment building, which burned down in the early 1990s. A grouchy old man started the blaze, which killed three people. The burned-out hulk stood there for several years before it was demolished.

The apartment building on the corner at left is also owned by the Fu Wah family, as are several other buildings just out of this frame. They are ethnic Chinese who lived in Vietnam until the war, when they emigrated to the US. Everyone likes them.

At the other end of the street at left is St. Frances de Sales Roman Catholic Church, which I blipped a year ago, in an unfavorable manner.

The triangular traffic island at the corner was rebuilt about three years ago and looks a lot better. In fact I remember seeing an old picture of this intersection from around 20 years ago and the litter and graffiti of that time was very striking --now long since banished from the neighborhood.

That's the short version of the memories I have of 47th & Baltimore.