The East Village and the Bowery: the downtown that stayed strange
St Marks Place, the community gardens, McSorley's, and the punk-and-poetry ghosts. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Astor Place
Start at the big black cube on its corner — the Alamo, which spins if enough people push. From here St Marks Place runs east into the heart of the old downtown.

2. St Marks Place
Three blocks that have been the punk strip, the head-shop strip, and now mostly cheap eats and tattoo parlours. Layered and a little worn; walk it for what it was as much as what it is.

3. McSorley's Old Ale House
Just off the strip, a saloon working since the 1850s — sawdust floor, two choices of ale, walls thick with old clippings. You don't have to drink; put your head in for the room.

4. Tompkins Square Park
The neighbourhood's living room and its old battleground, leafy now, with dog runs and chess tables. Sit on a bench; this is the middle of the walk and a good place to stop.

5. Alphabet City community gardens
East of the park the avenues run A to D and the gardens appear mid-block — fenced patches that residents reclaimed from rubble in the 1970s. Some open afternoons; peer through the railings if not.

6. The Bowery & the New Museum
Walk west to the old skid-row street, now galleries and the stacked white boxes of the New Museum. The end of the strange downtown, and 2 Av on the F is close by.

The East Village and the Bowery: the downtown that stayed strange