1st Ave Between 14th and 30th: The Land That Weird Remembered

I walk up and down this section of 1st avenue everyay, and each time I think to myself (to the tune of the Powerman 5000 song) "This is what it's like when worlds COLLIIIIIIIIIIDE!"

The transition from scuzzy lower east side to the medical institution-filled grammercy area isnt exactly seamless, no matter how hard Stuvesant Town (or, as I like to call it, LegoLand) tries to ease you into it. All of a sudden, there's Beth Israel and NYU Medical Center and I'm sidestepping jazzies and bloody gauze on the street. Complicating matters is the ominpresence of a fleet of people in scrubs and/or labcoats. The streets are flooded with sick weirdoes and docs alike! What is this strange carnival of souls? Also, some of the scrub outfits are blue on one side of the body and green on the right. What the hell? Only in New York! I like my illness...haute couteur.

The whole area does make me feel an overwhelming sense of health, but both good and bad, so as feeling, it sort of just cancels itself out. 1st ave: an anomoly in the space-time continuum.