Gothamist: The Lower East Side is Filthy!

Larry

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:56:52 -0500

What type of chemicals were they applying?

jackh

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 13:09:50 -0500

Oooh, powerwashing. I often look around the city and imagine powerwashing things. It all started when I rented a powerwasher and did my deck. pictures

kajmal

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 10:38:21 -0500

It depends on what's in the washer. Here's a good start.

j

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:55:56 -0500

seriously, where does all the gross water go????

kajmal

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 22:14:22 -0500

The grime covered part looks like the cover of Led Zepp's Physical Graffiti. Physical Graffiti.. removal! Heh. I'm so clever. I'm glad they're keeping the old buildings. If it was 50 years ago, they'd just be torn down. And to the guy who said that he's glad he puts on a tie instead of having that job.. doesn't seem like he understands the impact of making a physical difference in people's environments. I'd love to do work like that.

tucker

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 21:41:15 -0500

Do we pine for the old heroin-addicted streets of the LES? Ah the good old days.

bencharif

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:18:20 -0500

In 1963, my wife and I lived on the top floor rear of 172 Ludlow Street, a renovated 2-bedroom apartment, for $85 a month (yeah, it was cheap, but consider: I was making $65 a week, before taxes, as a clerk). Once she got pregnant, all I could think of was how I was not raising my kids on the Lower East Side (I grew up in Chelsea; she in Harlem). We moved first to the West Bronx, then to Boerum Hill, then to Fort Greene, settling finally in a big old Victorian near the water in St. George, where the ferry docks on Staten Island. There's only one thing I miss about the Lower East Side, and that is that it no longer exists as a place where it's possible to live cheaply in Manhattan.

Stacie

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 18:34:25 -0500

This picture reminds me again of how wonderful Trevor Little is. His work is amazing!

Gwin

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:15:47 -0500

I can't tell if my Allen Street building would look any different after a power washing - it seems to be painted in peeling grey paint. In any case, it's not just the LES that's dirty -- it's the whole town, right? They've been powerwashing Grand Central for the last few years (well, they might be done now - haven't checked recently) and the before/after shots were just as unbelievable.

Samuli

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:08:47 -0500

Just wondering, when they´re using that "powerwasher" so close those window, i hope that water doesn´t leak in to the apartments... Nobody knows how good those old frames hold?

whistlesandflowers

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:06:22 -0500

i miss the old les. those were the days. it is a shame that people who lived in the old les probably hated their lives as much as us and missed the old les themselves. and the people before that. and the people before that and eventually the monkeys, the amphibians, and one celled organisms, they all missed the old times. [epiphany of the word 'miss' that we keep forgetting, you miss what comes before you (what happens when you are not there) and you also miss in the sense that you long for it] i guess the universe must have been the most awesome place when it didnt exist.

Nick

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:01:12 -0500

Amazing photo, really.

Buba

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 13:42:24 -0500

I own a couple buildings like that and had them power washed recently. The before and after is incredible. Brick is a great material. One of my buildings is actually yellow, like this one, and we had no idea until after it was cleaned.

smitty

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 13:24:51 -0500

yeah, I'm really nostalgic for the times of constant burning coal. yum.

Leela

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:48:47 -0500

The LES was pretty filthy way back when, too - see Luc Sante's "Lowlife" for some eye-opening history. There's also a terrific chapter in that book about the decorative facades of the LES' buildings, how they were designed to look ornate and beautiful on the outside to hide the bleak squalor within.

GCT

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:45:57 -0500

Remember when they cleaned the ceiling of Grand Central and it turned out the inches of grime were several decades of nicotine build up? Good times...

heath

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:34:35 -0500

i live in the LES and was amazed when my building was painted on the inside. now seeing this makes me wonder just how beautiful my living situation can really be.

ECHO

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:18:48 -0500

where does the water go ?!! ? ewwww

Ramble

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:08:54 -0500

...but does it make anyone else feel wistful for the old LES? No.

Elderta

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:05:30 -0500

This may be the first time in the history of that building that it was cleaned in such a way. Eeks.

Jordan

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:45:16 -0500

My building is one of 4 connected together, each owned separately by this point, and all were grimy. A couple of years ago the building directly next door went through a power washing, and it was astonishing, both at how clean next door became and how disgusting my building was (and still is today).

will.xls

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:26:16 -0500

Those guys can’t be union, there would be at least 2 guys slacking off. I've done pressure washing before. In their defense, if you want to keep the machine working constantly you have to have one guy in reserve for when the guy washing gets fatigued. That kind of work makes me smile every time I tighten the tie around my neck. It is cold, wet, and miserable work.

Kelli

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:24:43 -0500

Just a joke, Peter :) I hope your right about emmissions control.

j

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:16:32 -0500

that is incredible!! i love the man slacking off. union workers...

working class schlub

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:15:11 -0500

the yuppies must be delighted.

reminiscant

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:03:19 -0500

um, nostalgic for the old LES? That (the clean brick facade) is the old LES, unless of course (and I doubt this), they smeared the grime onto the building during construction.

Peter

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:43:50 -0500

Don't worry Gothamist, it'll be dirty again by the time Bush is out of office. Not necessarily. Decades of exposure to motor vehicle exhaust is most likely what made the brick so dirty. Thanks to better emissions controls, cars are much cleaner today so with any luck the problem won't recur.

bob

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:41:18 -0500

Coal was used to heat buildings in the past.

fresh air person

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:40:30 -0500

ah, just think that a good percentage of the grime on those walls is dreck you have inhaled in all the years you have lived in ny! more bikes! less cars!

Peter

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:28:44 -0500

Kelli

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:19:06 -0500

but does it make anyone else feel wistful for the old LES? No way! Look at how the moulding above each window has a distinct color, giving the building much more beauty. Don't worry Gothamist, it'll be dirty again by the time Bush is out of office.

Kevin Walsh

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:14:20 -0500

>>In a few years all of the buildings down in LES will probably be this clean I wish, but how do you know all the buildings will be cleaned? www.forgotten-ny.com

John

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:13:28 -0500

Holy cow! That's astonshing. I wonder what my apartment building would look like after a powerwashing. I'm not sure if I would want the dirty old LES back. It has its own distinct charms, but the building weren't designed to be fithy.

neil

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:12:51 -0500

wow, that's pretty awesome.

John

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 10:12:35 -0500