SPRING!

And . . . It's . . . About . . . Time!!!

Vernal equinox . . . 1:32 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

And as the sun was slipping across the celestial equator from south to north, I was slipping through a warm and sunny Brooklyn marveling at the soft curtain of green that is beginning to appear on the tree branches, the spring bulbs that had managed to shove their way up through the soul, and the flowering trees and bushes that had suddenly burst forth. YES!

Just some random shots from a walk to the library through Bed-Stuy, Fort Greene and Prospect Heights . . .



The tips of the branches just starting to bud . . .

I love watching day to day as the soft spring blur on the trees transforms itself into the green barrier of summer . . .



Because there are so many things the trees of summer are good at hiding . . .


Each year when I see the forsythia I take a deep breath because I know we've made it through once again . . .


Shorts and tees out of the closet . . .





But we all know there is only one absolutely and positively reliable signal of the coming of spring . . .

As I Was Saying Last Night

And today turned out even nicer than Saturday and Sunday. And where was I? In an office, slogging through manuscripts, galleys, and what not. Oh, well. Back to Cooper Park, which I've been looking for an excuse to talk about since I discovered it last summer. The new building around there gives me my opening.



Cooper Park is tucked away at the far end of Williamsburg. To the east are the swamps of Maspeth, to the south is industrial Bushwick and to the north the BQE and a wedge of Greenpoint along Dutch Kills or Newtown Creek or whatever name it goes by. I can't say that no one knows about it, there is a project nearby and houses bordering the park and along Maspeth Avenue, and Metropolitan Avenue is nearby, but it's on the way to virtually nowhere so you would more or less have to know it was there to go there, or else stumble on it by chance as I did. To give you an example, a friend of mine said her boyfriend had lived within a few blocks of the park for several years, blissfully unaware of its existence.

I wanted to get the feel of the park here when it's at its prettiest so I am adding photos from last June, not from this past weekend. That's the view from Maspeth Avenue above. Below is a shot of the other side, Sharon Street, where the park is lined by small brick attached houses with a few faux Tudor touches, some of them almost smothered in foliage.


It's hard to believe, when you are strolling around the park, or sitting on a bench watching a soccer game, or the dogs in the dog run, or just reading a book, that Metropolitan Avenue is only a short block away.


But even here (et in Arcadia ego) there are some hints of breaches in the walls . . .





Now there is nothing at all exceptional about this row of small red brick dwellings except the way they all relate to each other and the park. It makes a very satisfying whole. But even these small intrusions are nothing after you look at the Maspeth Avenue and Olive Street corner of the park . . .





I have to admit that by the time I discovered Cooper Park that enormous building on the corner was already a fact on the ground so I don't know what it replaced. I always suspected it was something similar to the small brick apartment buildig to its left. If anyone knows or has a photo, I wouldn't mind knowing.

The street leading to the park from Metroplitan Avenue is called Orient Avenue and has what I like to think of as its own version of the Bates Motel.






It is just about time to call it a night once again, but I wanted to slip in a couple of map images here to give you an overview of Cooper Park and to show how close Maspeth Avenue, for example, is to Orient Avenue. Then I want to show you what Maspeth Avenue now looks like.






Looking down Maspeth toward it's intersection with Metropolitan Avenue at Bushwick Avenue.



Those trees at the far end are Cooper Park.



Colorful anyway.


The developers have already pushed themselves around the corner to one end of the park. Will they keep going; who's to stop them?

Nice day, nice day

Nice day, nice day (that's one each for Saturday and Sunday); who could believe that only a week or so ago, this was Williamsburg local color (OK, I'm cheating a little, the bottom photo is Prospect Hts.):

white!

And yesterday it was in the mid-50°s (!!) and I was walking around practically in shirtsleeves. And, a friend of mine reminded me that Daylight Savings Time begins next weekend. Cause to celebrate and get out in the sun like these folks wandering the sun-washed streets of Williamsburg . . .

Lately, when I walk around Williamsburg I have the feeling that I’ve stumbled onto a huge film set under construction (or maybe even abandoned) where the set designer was given the script for a few movies all jumbled together: Alphaville (make it big and sleek and silver), The Bird Cagetoo pastel, it’s Brooklyn, keep it sober), some early Fellini (lots of vacant land, dirt, no vegetation), with a little dash of Mon Oncle (sleek and silver and futuristic). Try to make it big, at least make it stand out, dominate the neighbors. (South Beachy but not

I was thinking a bit about this again lately because of a story I read last week in the New York Times that I may give a link to later on. It makes life interesting anyway; you don’t know from one week or month to another what’s going to shoot up around the corner or down the block.

I thought this weekend was a good opportunity to walk around and see what’s cooking. Not all these building are recent by any means but they’ll give you a pretty good idea of what’s been ‘abuilding in these parts; a Williamsburg architectural style, if there is one. I’ll try to suspend judgment on them if I can, though I don’t know how successful I’ll be. And it’s not that I particularly dislike many of them, but at times they do seem wildly out of place.

I don't want to be repetitive, either, but I may drop in several pictures of a building or street from different angles just to give a general idea of the street and put a particular building in perspective, like Skillman Avenue above, not untypical of the Italian section of east Williamsburg, mostly unpretentious two story row houses with a few taller ones thrown in here and there.

Five floors isn't exceptionally tall, but it does stand out among the others. Maybe it's that solid unrelieved black, unlike the one below of mellow red brick.

A block further on is Leonard Street, similar to Skillman in the types of houses . . .

Until you reach the end of the block at Conselyea St. . . .

Then back to Skillman Avenue . . .

Those are just a tad . . . imposing.

Now, to be fair, there is an old paint factory on the street that is also pretty large, though I didn't get that midtown Manhattan feel when I walked by; I didn't have the feeling of a cliff looming above me. Then again, maybe I'm not very objective about it.

Skillman Avenue near Graham Avenue. At least the colors match . . .


Before I head over toward Cooper Park there is one more image I have to put in here. I actually took this photo last June when I was wandering around there for the first time. I know I said that I would suspend judgment but for me this is the poster child for incongruity. It is on Humboldt Street between Frost and Withers Street.



Which is not to take away at all from the striking appearance of the building. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure but that of all the contemporary buildings dropped down into that neighborhood, this could be my favorite. It's just that where it is does no justice to either it or the block it's on.

Now as you get further north or east or whatever, you start to leave the cozy blocks of two story family homes. Kingsland Avenue, which comes to a screeching halt at Maspeth Avenue, is more commercial with a housing project nearby, and Maspeth Avenue itself, after it skirts Cooper Park, heads out into the industrial wasteland of factories and salvage yards along the Brooklyn-Queens border.

So, you could even say that these blocks add a welcome splash of color to otherwise drab surroundings . . .




But then there is Maspeth Avenue and Cooper Park. But I have to deal with that later because it is late. I hadn't intended to start this post tonight after switching the blog back here to the old host, but I did and now it's too late to finish. More later . . .

Not Migrating After All

It turns out that the blog host I intended to switch to was much less "user friendly" . . . at least for me . . . than this host. I decided that, in the end, it wasn't worth my trouble. I was spending too much time trying to format the posts when I should have been writing and uploading my images. I think it was great for someone who knows HTML well, but it wasn't for me.

I had hoped to get a post uploaded about the past weekend but it will have to wait a bit now. It's time to hit the sack.

An Excellent Snow Adventure

I spoke too hastily about the migration of the blog. It turns out that uploading a video to a blog post with the new host costs. It will be something like $59 per year per blog. I'm not sure I'll be using enough videos in the Brooklyn blog to warrant that. But I can't afford it right now anyway. So, I'll be hanging on to this blog as well for any videos I happen to want to add.

This one is of the unexpected storm we had today, 26 February.

Moving

This blog will be migrating to a new host. I am in the midst of trying to set up the new pages now but it's likely to take some time before I am familiar with all the widgets and extras and other things there. Still, that much being said, there will be no more new posts here though I'll keep a link to the remains on the new blog.

I know our winters are quirky here but it is almost March after all, so I'm confident it won' t be too long before I am out and about more and posting more.

The new blog is here:

Walking Brooklyn

This is an afterthought, written several days after the above. I found out that I can't yet post videos to the new blog. It will coat me some extra cash for that privilege, cash I can't afford at the moment. So I am keeping this blog for the time being.

I rarely post videos but, as it happens, I took some shots of the snow this afternoon (2/26) that I felt like posting so that goes here. The still photos, such as they are, will post to the new blog.

The Good, the Bad, and . . . Duane-Reade

The Midtowning of Williamsburg continues

With the temperatures moderating a bit more lately, I had decided I could at least wander around my own neighborhood to see how new construction was progressing. I rarely do that, having a few fixed routes to the subway, the supermarket, and into South Williamsburg when I head off to the library.


So, when I do go down an unfamiliar street I am sometimes taken aback by the appearance a new building wedged into the block, usually something or somewhere totally inappropriate. I thought I might wander out later this weekend and take a survey.




Meanwhile, I had been keeping my eye on the large structure going up on Bedford Avenue near Metropolitan. Until recently it had been covered in scaffolding or netting or just hadn't progressed to the point of being clad so you really couldn't tell what it would look like. I was very much afraid it was going to be another one of those boring green glass things that have been sprouting up around North Brooklyn.



I have to say that when I saw it last week (above) I was pleasantly surprised. It's clad in a sort of cream colored stone or gray depending on the light and doesn't look bad at all.



It's still pretty large, though even the size doesn't seem as overwhelming as it did when it was all scaffolding and girders and cranes and machinery.




When I shot the photos last week I cannot figure out how I missed the large banners on the side and front of the building until this morning. I think I was in a hurry to get someplace else and being nearby with my camra just snapped a few shots and went on. But there was no denying it as I walked past on my way to the L train with my buttered bagel in hand.



I don't want to sound snotty or snobby but I really Do Not Like Duane-Reade. I was so happy to hear that they'd been bought out by Walgreens. Not that Walgreens is any less ubiquitous in New York, but I was hoping I'd never have to see that nauseating red and blue DR logo any more (even though Walgreens will probably keep the stores just as they are). And I've really never forgiven them for buying out and closing down the Rock Bottom drug store in Jackson Heights when I lived there about twenty years ago. A great crowded emporium carrying some of the most out-of-the-way products you'd ever see and one day it had turned into a bland and boring and ordinary (and short lived, as it turned out) Duane-Reade with maybe a quarter of the products.

Just what we need in this neck of the woods; we already have our Chelsea-sized glass and steel mega-apartment buildings screening off the river views, why not more of 6th Avenue? Maybe at the other end of the block, still unreconstructed, we'll get an H & M or a Gap. We couldn't get anything useful like a competitively priced supermarket or a few bank branches.

My city, my borough, but NOT my drugstore. My drugstore is Kings, directly across the street, small and friendly and now decidedly in danger.