Though otherwise a relatively nondescript side street, 46th Street in Sunnyside, Queens gets a lot of attention at times during the course of its three fairly short, non-contiguous runs, including 2 subway stations named for itself and the status of being pretty much the heart of Sunnyside. Though it might not look like much, this block to the south of the infamous Queens Boulevard of Death is perhaps the busiest little south side commercial strip of any north-south boulevard intersection between Queens Plaza to the west and 63rd Drive in Rego Park to the east. I don't count Greenpoint Avenue, which its the boulevard across from Roosevelt Avenue because it slants so heavily towards an east-west orientation. What can I say? Let Greenpoint Avenue sue me. I'm trying to toot 46th Street's horn a little.
The large yellow pedestrian killed here signs betrayed this intersection's status back in 2001 as a Tier 1 killer. One might think that the over-the-top efforts to make it look like a homey pedestrian mall, which it certainly was not, may have actually drawn crossers into a dangerous complacency.
For those crossing towards the south, beneath the canopy of ancient one time major league pitcher John Rocker's favorite IRT 7 line, the backs of the infamous Pedestrian Killed signs flank their crossing, like two inscrutable Colossi of Memnon.

Long before the late 1990s public relations donnybrook involving Queens Boulevard, the city closed off the center connection between 46th Streets north and south in an apparent effort to reduce accidents. In essence, save for having to watch traffic within the covered parking area under the Mission styled elevated subway structure, pedestrian crossers get somewhat of a break between the east and westbound boulevard lanes, but again, as stated above, perhaps it lulls them into a premature state of security.
Like many of the numbered streets in this quadrant, 46th Street used to have a real name, Bliss Street. Well, it is fairly obvious that this has not been a place of bliss for those traveling by foot, but here and there, the old name lives on. The storefront with the pink canopy seen behind the gathering waiting to cross, is called Bliss Hair Salon and I'm sure there are others I did not see yet.
The subway station above (Isn't "elevated subway" an oxymoron of sorts?) only recently had Bliss dropped from the name. Like many government bureaucracies, it can be a tough sell convincing them that certain things no longer are relevant. It took a little time in this case; about 60 years give or take a few days.

Perhaps this really belongs on the Queens Boulevard, 44th-45th Street intersection page, but I did shoot it from 46th Street, so what the hell. This faces west, where a ton of traffic heads for the Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge and as we update this page in 2018, the Ed Koch Bridge and always called by irate driver stuck in interminable traffic jams on it, that f@#$%^g piece of s%&t bridge.
God help the foreigners who must quickly learn that each borough in New York City has its own numbered street sequences, unrelated to the others, except for the Bronx, whose numbering is at least nominally related to their Manhattan counterparts.
This area was basically barren land until the Mission styled elevated IRT 7-line was put through. Just about everything seen in these photos went up after the el, which must have been quite a site upon completion, snaking its way past a whole lot of nothing.

In a side note on the 46th Street intersection, February 26th of 2001, 63 year old Tina Ortiz was struck by a driver whose view was obstructed by a bow dangling from his rear view mirror. Although she was crossing against the light, the driver was ticketed for obstructed view. Why does anyone put these stupid bows on their rear view mirror? The fuzzy dice aren't bad enough?

On June 1st, 2001, a massive early morning fire wiped out a Korean restaurant and neighboring Irish pub here, closed Queens Boulevard and the overhead IRT 7-train for a while and crippled half the city with smoke visible in Staten Island.
The devastated site as it looked two days later, 6/3.
An entire page is devoted to aftermath of this blaze.