Market Slip, Lower East Side

Market Slip is just a patch of street that connects Market Street with the East River Parkway. It is a totally functional entity with almost nothing to say for itself. It is flanked on one side by a parking lot and on another side by a playground. Behind you and very dominant in the landscape are the brown brick behemoth buildings that are a telltale sign of low-income housing developments. Un-pretty is a gentle word for them. In front of you is the East River Parkway, roaring and impersonal, a raised highway that will leave an indelible impression of urban blight if you're not careful. Okay, but I'm a poet of possibilities, so I would urge you to look out at the magnificent view of the Brooklyn Bridge, as it originates nearby and rises up to those elegant arches. This is real drama, this view. If you can somehow take the imaginative leap of moving under the highway and straight through to the other side (watch how you cross and hold your nose because it seems to perpetually smell of urine) then you have earned the right to stand at the railing to the East River and look out at spectacular view of Brooklyn as if you owned the place.