A Strip of Old Broadway

Is this patch of ugly old buildings, on W. 46th Street east of Broadway, the last ungentrified section of squeaky clean Times Square? It's certainly one of the last. And its surrounding by shiny new towers on either side.

You have to wonder how such old, small, brick buildings survive in today's market. Is the landlord lazy? Or content with his lot? Could it be that Broadway Cameras is a cash cow? Do they sell tons of Walkmans and Typewriters to the tourists? Not to mention oriental rugs!

The signs are obviously 1970s or early 1980s-era. They have a beauty of their kind. And pigeons love them.

The building on the left used to be the Off-Broadway Diner, as the derelict signage attests. It's been left there even though the storefront is now occupied by a shop that deal in a glorious array of shiny crap. As for the second floor (seen above), where the windows have not been cleaned since Andrew "Dice" Clay was a comic sensation, who knows what goes on up there. Don't know how one gets up there, either. I couldn't find a door anywhere. Nice air conditioner, tho.

And then there's this window up on the third floor, an eye that has surely seen a lot of things transpire on W. 46th over the years. I've got a bad feeling about what goes on behind it.