West 49 St, Clinton / Hells Kitchen

West 49th starts off at 11th with the ever exciting Volvo dealership and Con Edison buildings. I know there are a lot of big buildings like this along the Hudson but I feel like they are so abundant around here and it really takes away from an already sad looking kind of neighborhood. People keep saying that Hell's Kitchen is up and coming, but I think streets like 49th prove that it's a far way from coming anywhere. The block at 11th is no better with a post office and a depressing looking, little hotel.
The block at 10th houses a Graphic Art High School (weird, right?) and a tool supply company. I can't imagine going to a high school wherein I was already geared toward a vocation. Call me old fashioned, but I feel like you should learn a lot of crap you'll never use in high school so that you can win in trivia games. But, this school has been around for a while so I guess there are plenty of people who disagree.
Once you get up to 9th, there's a really cool coffee shop called the Coffee Pot. It's not cool enough to travel to sthe street, but if you happen to be here, this is a far more enticing spot to stop than any of the million Starbucks in the area. There's also a candle shop, a Brazilian restauarant and a couple of old apartment buildings on the same side of the street. This side almost looks like an East Village block but then you look on the other side of the street and you get the massive Worldwide Plaza building. This building is famous for Kennedy's birthday where Marilyn Monroe sang her famous Happy Birthday to him. It's a pretty big building and I'm not quite sure what goes on in all of it.
I wouldn't live on 49th, but then again, I wouldn't live in this neighborhood. There's really nothing in the way of culture, restaurants, bars, etc. And, the architecture is mostly depressing. It just has a real mid-city kind of feel. It's a street you cross on your way to something else.