Saturday in Soho

This morning we headed downtown on the eastside to check out the Union Square farmers markets. Located at East 14th Street, 3 times a week people from New York state come into Manhattan and set up stalls to sell their produce. We walked around and checked out the array of fruit, vegetables, seafood, meat, flowers and other products available. There were also quite a few vendors selling their own artwork.


After the morning markets, we headed down to the trendy Soho neighbourhood. This part of Manhattan rose to fame as a neighbourhood for artists during the 60's and 70's and is known as Soho as it is SOuth of HOuston street. During this period, which lasted until the 80's, living in Soho was often of dubious legality as the area was zone for light industrial and commercial use rather than residential, and many residents had started converting their art studios and galleries into livable apartment space. As the neighbourhood rapidly rose of the socioeconomic scale in the early 80's many of the artists moved out leaving galleries, boutiques, restaurants and young urban professionals. We spent the afternoon battling the crowded streets before our evening reservation at a unique Mexican restaurant called Dos Caminos. On the way home we detoured through Times Square at night.