I love above ground trains in the springtime. The 7 train barely runs in Manhattan and when it gets out to Queens it goes above ground, high on elevated tracks. It’s much less gloomy and trapped feeling than the average train ride. There are even some pretty sweet Manhattan views, if you spend the whole ride staring out the window like I do.

I was started staring out the window the minute it went above ground after Hunters Point stop. As it crossed over LIRR tracks, I noticed a dead-end alley way full of street art. Fun to watch out the east side of the train, I figured it would be even better close up. So I got off at Court Square and walked into the kind of alley street smarts warn against…

There were warehouses on either side and no one was around. But it was a well-lit afternoon and busy Franklin Avenue was foot steps away, so I ventured down this sketchy street art alley under the 7 train tracks.

Don’t worry, I was on the phone with my boyfriend the whole time, my creep-meter never went off, and the two guys I saw in the alley were clearly working and were perfectly friendly. Deserted alley clichés aren’t always true!

Street artists wouldn’t lead blogger bitches like me into dangerous alleys! There was definitely some cool art down here. 

Along with lots of garbage and some forgotten LIRR train cars.

Then I saw this 5 Pointz wall and realized I must be really close to where the iconic graffiti mecca was… A Google search reveled that this alley I was in was literally in back of the original 5 Pointz mural space that was destroyed in 2013!

For the history of 5 Pointz, check out this article from The Daily Beast: A Visual History of 5 Pointz, NYC’s Graffiti Mecca

So this dead-end alley on Davis Street in Long Island City is an homage to the great graffiti institution that once was. Do I recommend visiting it? I’m not sure, to be perfectly honest. But I’m really glad I ventured down this road.