Please Do Not Urinate On The Smallest Street In Manhattan
Weehawken Street, located as far west in the Village as you can go, bears the title of Manhattan’s smallest street. I can only assume it also holds one other record…
Having the most signs asking people not to pee on it:
Literally, there are four signs hung on the block all requesting the same courtesy…
Some in better shape than others.
It makes sense – Weehawken Street is a pretty quiet street in between the more trafficked West 10th & Christopher. But what’s especially funny is, I see that when Ephemeral New York did a similar post in 2008, the signs were more varied:
“Weehawken is the smallest street in Manhattan – Help keep the beauty of it. Please do not urinate or litter.”
And:
“Warning! Cabbies, Truckers, Cabs & Pedestrians! Do not urinate on this block! Your plate is being taken down!”
So please: DO NOT URINATE ON WEEHAWKEN STREET!
-SCOUT
How can this be the smallest block in the city? Surely Mill Ln, connecting Stone St and William St, is smaller.
This is one of those claims that’s never fully explained. Maybe it’s literally the smallest “street,” as opposed to a lane or alley? Maybe the width, or total square area? Not totally sure.
There is another street that is shorter: Moore Street between Water and Pearl is at least 60 feet shorter. It’s a block away from the SI ferry.
If they didn’t want people doing that to their street, then they shouldn’t have started its name with “Wee”
That street used to be the best-kept parking secret in all of New York City. Only a few years ago (certainly less than 10) that whole neighborhood was so far west that hardly anyone would be there. I can pinpoint the change to around the time the Richard Meier towers went up on Perry Street and truly made the far west side a destination. It’s been a pretty amazing transformation.
I think this merits a poster. This could be as big as “Keep Calm and Carry On.”
As a writer, if you said “write a script around this street and place that sign in it somewhere,” I’d have 90 pages in a weekend. And there’d be a lot of public urinating in the script.
So then the sign would say “Cabbies, truckers, pedestrians and auteurs! Don’t pee on Wee!”
This makes me think of that one, which is a lot more graphic…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/horomaniac/5615975283/
I was just about to mention those signs on Jersey St. Not far from the one Horomaniac linked to, there’s a similar one that shows a top-hatted man popping a squat to poop. Pretty awesome.
These signs are very old now and date from when there was a gay bar between Weehawken and West on Christopher. People used to stand around outside when the weather was nice and nature sometimes took its course. 🙂
I don’t know if it is the shortest street, but the block of Christopher between Weehawken and West is only a few feet long (the width of the one building on the left in the picture).
Edgar Street downtown between Greenwich St and Trinity Place makes Weehawken St look like Park Ave. It is THE smallest length street in Manhattan (if not NYC as a whole).
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/Alleys/edgar/edgar.york.html
I forgot about little Edgar Street! You’re right it is short. Looks like almost a third of a football field long!
York St (just south of Canal, off 6ave) will be a close second
@Duck: I couldn’t remember exactly where I shot that one, but I’m almost sure that’s where it was now. Thanks!
If you look closely on the doorways of Weehawken, you can see the faint imprint of the name that adorns one of the oldest businesses on Christopher: A marine repair shop, a holdover from the 40s when that area was home to dock workers and the Mob.
Wow! I thought I got around this city.
I browsed through both of your sites and was amazed at how much stuff you’ve got. Thanks for sharing.
Chris Brady
Now if your looking for the narrowest street; try Collister Street between Laight & Beach in Tribeca. It’s also the easiest way to drive north after exiting the tunnel during rush hour. While I have not had a need for this shortcut in a decade, I believe it is also one of the few streets in Manhattan without sidewalks.
Years ago, when I lived in Hoboken and drove into the city at night; the first exit of the jug handle was closed to keep traffic off of Hudson Street (avoiding cross traffic at the tunnel entrance). We would take the 2nd exit, Beach Street that no one would take if they were looking to go Uptown. Once on Beach, turn on Collister and head two blocks north to Laight. Collister is one of those streets that you had to know about it was there or you would never see it. If you stayed on Beach, Greenwich headed South. On Collister, you could turn left at Laight to get to West Street and in the uptown direction. Of course, there was a time when the corner of Laight & West was a parking lot and if you wanted to avoid a 4 minute traffic light, you cut thru the parking lot. But Collister has to be the narrowest street in NYC.
Looks like your post got distilled to an infographic in New York Magazine… page 18 of the April 25 issue…
Love your site!!
This street also became infamous back in the 70’s, when NYC had a huge black out. In the darkness this street, so far down on Christopher street, became one huge “backroom” with people having a free for all sex party night. I wasn’t there, but it must have been a great sight to see and perhaps even join in.