Christiana Does A Dérive
February 20, 2018, by Christiana
My dérive began on East Broadway, adjacent to Montgomery Street on the Lower East Side, using the urban base deck and the New York City deck from the Dérive app. The street was quiet and mainly residential. Tall, red, brick buildings for government housing are scattered around the area. I made the conscious choice to put my phone on “Do Not Disturb” mode and to only use it when the app was needed for a new card, to center my psychogeographical awareness. Without any distractions, I noticed the different types of people walking by on the sidewalks and the wide streets that allowed for flowing traffic. I walked west on East Broadway towards Rutgers street because the app directed me to follow a bird. As I walked, I noticed local businesses, parks, schools, community facilities, and other residential buildings along the street. It was obvious that this area is community-oriented for the diverse group residing within it. This reflects the embedded cultural history of the neighborhood, providing a home to immigrants and workers for many generations coming to New York City.
My next card instructed me to “walk north and find something to draw hope from.” I turned right onto Rutgers Street, which transitions into Essex Street as you follow it north. The variety of cultural influences is abundant in the area, vibrant with people of all ages and backgrounds walking in their own directions along the street; this fulfilled my inspiration for hope that I needed to complete the dérive card objective. When Rutgers turns into Essex, I detected that the location was a hub for transport, encouraging human movement into the area. I passed an MTA station, a bus station, a CitiBike rack, as well as two different signs directing drivers to nearby available parking. While the area isn’t a commercially busy area like Broadway or Times Square, it was obvious that the location encouraged communal movement within it. I noticed children playing as I passed Seward Park along Essex Street. As I continued past Grand Street, the projects are largely in the horizon along the edge of south-east Manhattan. I approached Broome Street on Essex and the street felt as if it was getting closer in. Walls along the street got higher as I continued north and the shade from the trees made the sidewalk feel narrow. Along the dérive until this point, I noticed numerous works of graffiti art on the walls, light posts, and traffic barriers. The graffiti is varied, some are simple illegible tags, but many were elaborate mural-esque pieces of emphasized color and scale. Essex is also notably busier than East Broadway, hosting loud construction and rushing taxis (increasingly as I approached Delancey Street). As I continued north, passing Delancey, the size and loudness of the street increased. It was easy to imagine what Essex and Delancey Streets may have looked like in the past, referenced by Sante in his book. The street isn’t completely clean and it’s obvious that there is a young-adult vibe in the area.
The next card told me to “follow something red” and a small dog wearing a red sweater had caught my eye as it passed me on Essex. I followed the red-sweater dog and its owner through a right turn onto Stanton Street. The street was much quieter, I noticed more school-aged children walking around. I noted passing two schools on Stanton as I walked along. The street, much like my starting point on East Broadway, gave an impression of a community-oriented area. Every other building was made with red brick, in between the old buildings there were newly developed apartment complexes which contrasted with the area’s authenticity.
Attorney Street meets Stanton Street in a cul-de-sac with a large and unwelcoming sign to cars that reads “DEAD END.” My next dérive card instructed me to “head towards a nearby square of some kind” which was perfect for my location. Beyond the cul-de-sac on Attorney Street is a public school and a park that affords access to only pedestrians. There is a large basketball court, which I qualified as a “square of some kind.” I noticed two NYPD trucks parked along the dead end as I passed through the park on the pedestrian path to Rivington Street.
The following card instructed me to “scout around for the nearest police, ambulance, or fire car. Listen for sirens.” I noticed another NYPD cop car drive past me and make a right turn onto Clinton Street. The intersection of Clinton Street and Rivington Street is a narrow street filled with waiting cars. I followed the cop car’s path until it had come to a halt only a few 100 feet into its right turn onto Clinton Street, due to traffic.
I pushed the app for a new card which directed me to “turn left in 2 blocks.” I followed Clinton Street two blocks to East Houston, easily the busiest of the streets I had visited until this point in the dérive. I turned left after I had crossed Houston which took a considerable length of time to wait for the many lanes of cars to come to a halt. East Houston is loud, very much like Broadway, but acts as almost like a highway. There are residences, corporate business, and local businesses varying along the street.
I followed East Houston for a good amount of time, until the street broke off into E 1st street. I followed East Houston to its breaking point into this new street and noticed a contrast in the essence of these streets. E 1st street was very quiet, not many people walking on it, and shaded from trees lining the pathway. East Houston’s loudness could be heard and felt as I walked along E 1st street, yet I felt like I was breaking away from East Houston’s demand for attention. I was drawn to this contrast. As I continued to move west, I thought about how we discussed the desire to live in the center of Manhattan in class, with desirability decreasing as the location gets farther to Manhattan’s waterfront. I followed E 1st street until I approached first avenue; first and first.
My next dérive card mentioned to “find something that would impress on Instagram,” which is when I remembered visiting a restaurant around this area not too long ago. “Lucien” has been on the LES for decades and I stumbled upon the French restaurant not too long ago. It resides almost exactly at the corner of E 1st street and 1st avenue. I briefly looked inside the restaurant from the window on 1st avenue, admiring the rustic French decor. Much like the area, the restaurant reflected an unrefined and genuine aesthetic that the entirety of the Lower East Side embodies. I continued along this avenue until I reached 4th street.
My final card instructed me to “walk towards the heart of the city. If there is no heart, conjure one up.” I remembered in Sante’s work, “Low Life”, he noted that “of all the streets, the oldest was Broadway.” (9). I recalled our discussions about the Broadway vs. Bowery debate and decided to walk in that direction from E 4th street. I stopped at Bowery. The position that I came to Bowery on was just before Cooper Square, where Bowery then transitions into 3rd avenue. In Sante’s book, he provided images of what the street looked like in the early 1900s; dark, industrial, blue-collar, etc. The culmination of decades of this image has transformed Bowery into a symbol for the underground. I contemplated the associations that come with the street “Bowery” and how this persona came to embody the street, and its stark contrast to the image of Broadway. It was at this point that I concluded my dérive for the Lower East Side, having noted the distinct differences between residential/community-oriented streets (E Broadway, Stanton, Attorney) and those that are more designed to encourage movement along them (Essex, Houston, Bowery), all of which retained the qualities that embody the diverse neighborhood.