Stores along Broadway avenue
New York presents very interesting urban dynamics. You walk along any avenue, and you see shops that cater to any possible desire you might have. You want a portable washing machine? It's in a 3.5m wide shop cramped just next to the cellphone operator's shop, and next to the indian Deli, and next to the clothes store, and next to the organic food market. Walk up two blocks (one should get acquainted with the Manhattan distance after a couple of days in its eponymous city) and you will see the same stores reappearing, just distributed in a slightly different pattern.
You then realise that it is possible to serve all your needs within a very limited geographical space, following the important rule of "you shouldn't have to walk more than 5 minutes to get anything you need". The phenomenon is interesting in the sense that it partitions this huge seamless expanse of large residential buildings, commercial spaces and transportation hubs into small villages that are self-contained. I could spend a month around W 80th street in between Broadway and Riverside Drive, and I'd actually have a nice park to visit (not Central Park, which to my shame I only visited today for the first time), coffee places to hang out, a barber shop, an electronics store, a nail club (wtf!?), and a laundromat (we still haven't deliberated on the use of the latter, more to come on the subject?).
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