The East Village Fire: Love Saves the Day By Sarah Larson

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/sarah-larson/the-east-village-fire-love-saves-the-day

"In the parochial way of most New Yorkers, I have a few well-trod blocks that I consider my own. I admire them daily, a little in love. Every morning, I walk down East Seventh Street from my apartment, between First and A, to the subway at Astor Place. I love that stretch of Seventh Street intimately and irrationally, in part because of the relative ancientness of its buildings and in part because of the people who live and work in them. It’s an independent little stretch of Manhattan, strongly influenced by shopkeepers, Ukrainians, artists, students, and professors. It’s unmolested by banks and Duane Reades. On the ground level, it’s mostly bars, cafés, cultural institutions, odd little boutiques, and restaurants. In the morning, I see them setting up. At night, on my walk home, I see them in full swing, and sometimes I stop in somewhere, say hello, have some dinner."