Random, spur of the moment beef, in a horrible neighborhood. Right by the car wash on 109th Street, near the 1st Avenue projects (I'm only being so specific because of your history of being a mail carrier in NYC, Flushing). It had nothing to do with the street.

As an aside, it was the projects in that area that turned East Harlem from a blue-collar Italian-American safe haven into the cesspool it is today.