The Bowery and Delancey Street — © Brian Rose

The Bowery has been known for a long time as the restaurant supply and lighting district of New York. Manhattan used to have many such concentrations of businesses, often with their wares spilling out onto the sidewalks. Does anyone remember dodging rolling clothing racks in the Garment District?

The Bowery — © Brian Rose

The stores are still there — mostly. But new hotels and a scattering of galleries and restaurants have gradually begun to move in. I actually expected a more rapid turnover, but I think that the restaurant supply and lighting businesses will eventually decamp for the outer boroughs. Some will be pushed out, others who own their buildings, will cash in.

The Bowery — © Brian Rose

The Bowery remains, for the moment, a wonderfully chaotic mess of street. There are still a few shelters for homeless men, vestiges of the days when this was New York’s skid row. Chinatown dominates the south end of the Bowery, as colorful as ever, while things have gotten quite upscale near Cooper Square at the north end.