NYC 2: I know that name

I work with CLOs (Collaterlized Loan Obligations). Each has a name. Some are named after the manager. ING IM CLO 2011-1, Carlyle Global Market Strategies 2012-1, KKR Financial CLO 2012-1, Halycon Loan Advisors Funding 2012-2 etc. Others after things. So there is nearly a CLO for every single park, street, avenue and river in NY (one manager even ran out of parks so they used a park in NY which is literally just a tree!). And obviously there are managers named after places in NY. So I'm walking around seeing words like Duane, Tribeca, Gramercy, Bryant, Hudson I think CLO! Same thing happens in London but the other way round.

When in a new city I like to explore by foot. I might have taken this to the extreme but what can I say, I don't often get to walk down rows and rows of dead straight roads with wonderfully colourful names like 39th Street, 9th Avenue and Avenue C.

It would be desperately boring if I detailed each of my walks. So instead I will show some pictures I took on my phone and intersperse them with random and unrelated thoughts.

 The first picture above is the Chrysler Building at night. Impressive. I prefer it to the Empire State Building.

Americans like there big cars. The only compact car I saw over here was the modern Mini. Saw a Land Rover advert on TV: the voice over was reassuringly British.

This was the view from my hotel room. Man was I excited to see those water header tanks, so American. Also that Art Deco building in the back ground is rather to my liking.

I've been told that a building exclusiveness is proportional to the building's height. The British guy I was talking to said his 5 story apartment block is probably the least prestigious in the Upper East Side, whereas the 30 floor block across the road is the most.

Sat in Washington Square today listening to a Jazz trio busking. Green with envy yet? Stopped in Union Square a few days ago and watch a guy jump over 5 people.

The best "urban renewal" I saw was the High Line, which is a converted elevated railway line. Interestingly for parts of it they had raised the walkway up and left the railway surface untouched. There were trees growing! Not sure if you can call Freedom Tower urban renewal. But I did not appreciate how tall it is until I wrote this. The view I have at Newark Airport is of all of Manhattan. Freedom Tower and Empire are head and shoulders above the rest.

This was a nice view to the Empire State building with blossoms. There wasn't as much blossom as I expected but this was a little gem of a street.

None of these photos show how bad the roads surfaces are. If you think London is bad.... You wouldn't complain about Chelsea tractors if London was that bad.