These paper flyers tell the stories of many New Yorkers.

This wall allows New Yorkers to shop their talents and skills to fellow residents via flyers. Their areas of expertise include:

MRS 2000 (Magnetic Resonance Stimulation) for $25. Energize Your Life!

Al’s Computer Help. We Come to You 7 Days.

Heavy Weather Music.

Guitar Lessons. You can play guitar and Larry Landon will teach you how!

The Sister Sweepers. What was once your chaos can become our work of art!

Computer Help! We come to you! PC & Mac Specialist!

Explore Your Creativity With PHOTOSHOP.

Ninja Tax. Tax preparation. Tax consulting. Tax planning.

Pimp Your iPhone. Call for a free estimate.

How Do You Get the Word Out? Let Martin, the Flyer Man, distribute your flyers!

NYC one step at a time.

New Yorkers are walkers; we have no choice — most of us don’t own cars, which leaves us with public transportation and our feet to get around. As shoe people, New Yorkers have one of two paths to take: buy quality shoes at higher prices or buy cheaper shoes more often. This rack of black shoes on the sidewalk represents the latter option. Perhaps that is why we find such shoes discarded as trash when they fall prey to the wear and tear of NYC’s sidewalks.

Bed Frame Business

Furniture gets old. Televisions become obsolete. Mattresses wear out. Even toilets go out of style. But sidewalk bed frames generally represent a major change in a New Yorker’s life. Perhaps giving up their bed to share someone else’s, or calling it quits in a city that just wasn’t right for them at this particular time in their life. NYC’s sidewalks tell the stories of its citizens, and bed frames indicate big changes for people muted by the magnitude of their surroundings. It is so important for all of us to recognize the details of our neighborhoods. Humanity is about acknowledging the lives of those we’ve never met, because we are those people the others have never met, and we need our communities to keep our legacies alive, if only for an instant, in the thoughts of complete strangers.

“The personal lives of others are none of our business,” we say. But, in truth, we are all part of each others’ business on New York City’s sidewalks.

Can you see the light?

A trash can near the West Village, or “Willage,” has two long light bulbs protruding from it. Very pronounced “Porcupine Effect” with this ensemble.

Keep up the great work Ready, Willing, and Able!

At Hnyc, we’re thankful for the folks at Ready, Willing, and Able. Thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping our sidewalks safe and clean, making this the best city in the world. New Yorkers begin and end every day in the city on the sidewalks in front of their apartment buildings, and Ready, Willing, and Able ensures those steps are ones that make us proud of our city.

Trashed skateboard, no wheels.

New York City’s sidewalks wear down everything, even skateboards.

Lower East Side trash can.

A basket full of fall.

A New York City bike decorated with synthetic autumn leaves shows how much New Yorkers appreciate and celebrate autumn. It seems counterintuitive to think that fall – a season made for nature’s trees, animals, and waters – would have such an impact on a concrete maze like New York City. But it does. Big time. Vibrant colors electrify the embrace of our parks and pastel leaves tumble down and pirouette across our sidewalks, scratching at the cement like brittle hummingbird bones caught in fits of wind. The air is crisp and bites at your watery eyes. The city throws on a scarf. Winter looms.

Fall in the City.

Autumn is, of course, about change. So is spring, but spring is about the type of change that evokes renewal and rebirth. Autumn is about harvesting: about death and reflection.

November in New York City means sidewalks blanketed with the crinkle of orange, yellow, brown, and red leaves scuttling among our discarded trash as the wind gusts down our chilly streets like empty subway cars in the night.

The grill is a distinctive symbol of summer, warm weather, and hearty meals eaten in shorts and T-shirts with a cold beer and handful of napkins. Those days are gone, and as the dampness of a passing November rainstorm clings fallen leaves to cement sidewalks, we are reminded that there is no better place to spend a life than New York City.