Sweet city ride: Old-school Mercedes parked on 28th Street between 10th & 11th.

An old-school Mercedes was parked on our block this week. This seems like the type of car James Bond would drive in the Sean Connery era.

Evidently it is a Mercedes 280SL, which was introduced in the late 1960s and continued in production through the early 1970s. Its nickname is the “Pagoda,” which based on Wikipedia is inspired by its “slightly concave hardtop.” Now I don’t know a whole lot about cars, but I gather that a “hardtop” is the actual roof of the car, and why a convertible is nicknamed after its roof I have no idea. But here we are and I’m just the messenger. This indeed is a sweet city ride.

Circumstantial evidence that Dr. Dre circa 1999 lives at Avalon West Chelsea.

Spotted outside Avalon West Chelsea: Rolls Royce from the 1990s (I’m pretty sure this is called a Rolls Royce Silver Spur). This looks like the type of car Dr. Dre would bounce in a music video you’d watch on Total Request Live back when Carson Daly was a thing. Here’s the video for Still D.R.E. if you don’t remember what I’m talking about—the cars bounce at 16 seconds in and the beat drops at 21 seconds in: Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg - Still D.R.E. (Official Video) - YouTube.

I take the semi-regular presence of this sweet city ride on our block as circumstantial evidence that Dr. Dre lives at Avalon West Chelsea. On that note, I’ve talked to a few people from Avalon West Chelsea in connection with this block association, and one repeat point of conversation is the drag racers racing around on 11th Avenue or the West Side Highway—apparently the noise is enough to shake your windows. To the drag racers I present a separate dated rap song: Drive Slow - YouTube.

Sweet city ride.

Spotted outside 529 West 29th Street: matte black Tesla SUV. This seems like the type of car Batman would take to his office job after settling down, getting married, having kids, and moving to Northern California. Just enough to remind him of the good old days while minimizing his carbon footprint in the process.