The Condos

Published on: November 13th, 2004 | Last updated: December 7, 2015 | Written by: Bad Guy Joe

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Up until the mid 1990s, this emergency exit was known as ‘The Condos’.

Leading to a tunnel deep below the streets of the Lower East Side, the exit contained landings and a room that junkies from the streets above called home. The higher levels closest to the street were reserved for those who lived there the longest, while newcomers would have to go deeper down, into the subway tunnel where nooks between the tracks also provided for living space. With so many levels and backwater spaces where one could curl up and sleep off a heroin cloud, it’s no surprise why earned this name.

Those days are in the past, however. Today, there is nothing left except for MTA work equipment, as well as walls lined with some very old graffiti tags. Given the fact that the area was populated with so many homeless, the tags you might find here are some of the oldest and most historic in the system. Writers didn’t come down here very often, not wanting to have to hop over the homeless just to catch a few tags.

Comments

NOTE: It sometimes takes a short while for comments to be approved - unfortunately there's a lot of spam comments that come in. I absolutely love when y'all share personal stories of friends relatives etc who worked in these places. It really helps capture what these places were like before they closed up shop.

If you're feeling salty, argumentative comments completely devoid of facts (supply links to support your argument) will not be published. Got a case to state? come with the details.

One response to “The Condos”

1. Union Tpke says:

   November 2, 2017 at 5:30 PM

   It says drainage to Broadway–Lafayette. Do you have any clue as to why this was constructed?

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