Orchard Street Repaved Early Tuesday Morning
A chunk of charm is gone. The museum-ified, model block of Orchard Street between Broome and Delancey is now without its longstanding cobbled character. Or more accurately, the asphalt scoring meant to resemble Belgian Blocks.
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As we reported two weeks ago, the entire length of both Orchard and Ludlow were scraped to the bone in anticipation of repaving. While the latter had its day late last week, the former wasn’t upgraded until the small hours of Tuesday morning. The graveyard shift of DOT workers were busy making a clamor with all the heavy-duty CAT machinery, keeping the neighbors awake. Indeed, we fielded a number of emails regarding the earthquake-esque shaking of nearby tenements – the vibrations, dishes clanking, etc.
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When the gagworthy fumes finally cleared later Tuesday, fresh blacktop replaced the faux-Belgian Blocks with homogeneity.
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