Reds

Faded things are usually authentic things. You have your faded jeans, muted sweatshirts, desaturated films set before 1950, scratches on an old record, or a cracked old photograph - washed with dust and blurred at the edges. When the color goes, it's easy to know that it's old.

But look up there at that brilliant red. Actually, look down the block and see the succession of brilliant colors, all rich reds, occasionally a deep black. Underneath, these are former sweatshops, little apartments that housed hundreds of lives, factories packed with people whose grim photographic poses formed our impression of the past.

In the bustling days before million dollar apartments in Soho, the colors must have been just as bright. Maybe they faded when the shops closed and the money dried up, but the new cash flow keeps things bright and brilliant. It's a little precious right here, but no more vivid than those photos before they faded.