Sidewalk ice sculpture.

This frozen fire hydrant tells the story of NYC sidewalks on this particularly cold day.

Nice work, mommy.

This teddy bear may seem cold and lonely tied to this chilly bar of scaffolding, but the “mommy loves me” embroidered blanket tells a different story. Someone decided it was time for this teddy bear to leave their life, but didn’t have the heart to place it in the trash. Totally understand that decision.

Not in Kansas anymore.

There is a story behind these shoes. Perhaps some woman had tired of them, they went out of fashion, or there was some association they carried that she could no longer tolerate. Regardless, an anonymous woman in New York City has made a change in her life, and it’s the little decisions that tell the world who we are. Good luck, lady.

Who I am is on my t-shirt.

This wall of t-shirts outside of a shop on 14th Street evokes the power of pop culture and irreverence. From the Godfather to weed, one of the reasons tourists and locals buy these shirts is because they provide an opportunity to showcase one’s values. One laugh at a time. Sorry, Prada, fashion happens at all levels.

The sidewalks of New York. Keep the music alive.

On a wet night, scaffolding provides this old, empty chair with a dignified final exit.

I imagine it was a difficult decision to throw away this chair. Even in its decrepit state, it still looks comfortable, and judging from its tattered back support, it was appreciated, perhaps even loved, by a man or woman who sat in it for countless hours at their desk at in their apartment, working on their computer, reading about the world and maybe writing about life. And now it’s Hnyc’s turn to write about the chair, and the unknown person who spent some of their life in it.

Computer and cardboard.

A discarded Dell computer sits perched on a stack of boxes at night on a New York City sidewalk. Perhaps they bought a Mac.

From a time when travel was cool.

Baggage Claim.

Old luggage on an empty New York City sidewalk. Perhaps someone died, or moved, or simply stopped moving. But these scuffed-up, classic suitcases tell the story of a life, or lives, well lived — full of movement and the sense of hope, expectation, and odd pangs of loss that constitute travel.

Has anyone seen the remote?

A couch sits in the middle of the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue on a cold Friday night.