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Wandering Park Slope

August 19, 2007

My Saturday wanderings started with a very popular and prosperous part of Brooklyn: Park Slope.

If you’re financially sound and new to NYC: Park Slope calls. And a lot of people are hearing that call. There are definite reasons for that. It’s a nice area with beautiful buildings and a magnificent, terrific, wonderful, beautiful park right next to it: Prospect Park. I’ll be posting separately on that.

Okay, for those people who don’t know Brooklyn: Park Slope is probably just a couple of miles east of Manhattan’s Financial District (that’s at the southern tip of Manhattan). It is easily within reach of Manhattan because of a bunch of subways plus the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s a bit north of Coney Island, but it is so far from Coney Island, in a cultural sense, that they practically aren’t on the same planet.

Park Slope is the home of a lot of artists and performers, as well as oodles of the non-hoi polloi (I love getting technical). The prices range from sub-Manhattan to Manhattan equal. The sub-Manhattan prices are in places that call themselves “Park Slope”, but don’t quite share the same zip code(s). The area is quite hilly (that’s the “slope” part) and apparently lays claim to being the area of the story “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”. Well, there are lots of trees in this part of Brooklyn.

The area has a lot of brownstones and rowhouses and the like. Here are some on 7th Avenue, which seems to be a main commercial drag in Park Slope.

And a few more.

The thing I love to point out (this is my jealous side) is to look at the window air conditioners. The buildings are old, magnificent, often expensively remodeled, and incapable of handling central air conditioning. You see it all over Manhattan, too.

The houses below are magnificent. They’re on 9th Avenue about a block away from Prospect Park and are probably way, way, way outside any price range I’d ever consider.

Yeah, they’ve got the occasional window air conditioner, too.

Some of the buildings have some interesting art.

There’s even some small art. Here’s a bit of tree protection (probably protecting it from dogs which doesn’t bode well for the art).

Okay, Park Slope is a terrific looking place. But is there more to it? Sure, but my other impressions are so minimal that you can take them for what they’re worth.

The Park Slope Coop (I prefer the more correct “Co-op” to differentiate a cooperative from a chicken house) is an interesting throwback to the 1970s.

The place is busy and filled with non-standard foodstuffs. It is also a little dirtier (although not unsanitary) than I like my grocery stores to be. It has the real feel of the 1970s cooperative food store that I used to go to long ago. But that’s not for good reasons. There are lots of little repairs that need to be done (as in “we’ve got more important things to do rather than repair a few tiles or re-paint a wall”) and the displays are unprofessional. I used to do some retail and it’s always a good idea to pull the few remaining items to the front to make the display look full and flush. At the Park Slope Coop, every single can was pushed as far back as it could go. And almost every line of product wasn’t fully stocked. It isn’t for nothing that Whole Foods is doing so well: they’ve got the co-op feel and selection types down pat, but they’ve done a lot of professionalizing of their appearance.

On the other hand, as I went it a pretty loud woman (apparently just in a boisterous and happy mood) greeted an old friend with the statement “I just finished my film shoot. It was intense, man!”

Another Park Slope image in my mind: lots of stoop sales (people putting out homewares for sale, but having no yard, put it just off the building’s stoop). I saw about four stoop sales in three blocks. My favorite: a family had out a wide variety of stuff. Not a great quantity, but a great variety. It included two mannequins, an accordian, and an old PC. I took a picture, but it came out poorly, so won’t be shown.

And they did have a great flea market that day. It appears to be a weekly event. I thought it was pretty good.

It included furniture, coins, typewriters, old watches, original art, and (most poignantly) family photos. The quality appeared generally on the good side, so it beats most flea markets hands down.

There are lots and lots of real estate offices. As usual in NYC, all of them have posted “for sale” and “for rent” samples on their front windows. Most of the offices actually have a number of their postings marked “SOLD” or “Under Contract”. I don’t know how true/timely they are and think that’s just to drum up interest on the part of sellers.

I had lunch at a little Tex-Mex place. Not worthy of any note, so I won’t.

Overall, Park Slope is ethnically very caucasian and middle American. I don’t think I heard any foreign languages on the street, but people and events were actually very muted.

-H

Categories: Brooklyn, Wanderings

Comments: 8 Comments

Mugged in Harlem?

August 18, 2007

Readers will note from my earlier posts that I really like Harlem. That makes this a hard post.

I think I was mugged. It’s open to interpretation, but I’d say I was.

By the Black Panthers. Yep, you may remember them.

They got me for the grand sum of $2. “Voluntarily” handed over…against my will…without explicit threat from them…but while I was surrounded by them….while they oh-so-nicely explained that I had taken their picture without permission…but it was okay if I was a reporter….but it wasn’t okay if I wasn’t…but I could make it right for a donation.

In my opinion: Black Panthers = Muggers.

In my opinion: I was extorted.

Here’s the $2 picture:

That’s them to the lower left. I was taking a picture of the crowd (I have about 20 other non-Panther crowd pictures which I’ll post some of in a separate Harlem post). This is a lousy picture. I wouldn’t have used it if one of their members hadn’t confronted me less that 3 seconds after I took the picture. It wasn’t any of the guys in the picture. Instead, some others had apparently been watching me (I was one of a few whites in that particular area) and came up behind me when I was taking the picture.

He was very “nice”, introducing himself as some sort of representative. There were about two or three others with him that I saw. He said, very nicely, that he noticed me taking pictures of the Panthers and they didn’t like having their picture taken. He said such pictures “get all around” and they don’t like that. However, if I was a representative of the media (and could prove it with a card); it would be okay. If not…he paused for a moment…I should make a donation. At that instant, a bucket appeared to my left.

I said I was taking a picture of the crowd. In fact, I had wanted the Panthers to be part of it, but I wasn’t going to say that. He repeated his statement about whether I was media or the possibility of a donation.

I was incredulous. I was being asked to put a value on….me/my safety/my photo. I was being terrorized.

I offerred “How about $2?” He said that would be fine. I guess Famous Ankles now has a proven worth at least two bucks.

His demeanor was very calm and unemotional. To his right was an attractive female member. Once again, very poker-faced. I always figured that muggers would be more emotional. I never saw the one with the bucket and I had a feeling I was being surrounded behind me. I know other people (non-Panthers) watched as I pulled out my wallet. I wonder at the idea of their thoughts about that. There were hundreds of people within 30 yards of me. There were cops at the end of the block (we were on 135th Street between Lenox Ave. and Frederick Douglass Blvd). They were a million miles away.

I handed over the $2. He said “thanks”. I walked on. I’m glad to have kept the camera, my wallet, and my safety. I regret the loss of Harlem as a favorite part of NYC. I guess I’ll keep my $1.285 million. Of course, that’d probably make the Panther scum happy.

I strove to regain my self-respect. I made sure I walked near the scum twice more before I left. They don’t own the streets. I didn’t take their picture, though.

-H

Categories: Harlem, Wanderings

Comments: 6 Comments

Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem

August 14, 2007

Marcus Garvey Park is just south of 124th Street and is somewhat between 5th Avenue and Lenox (there are actually some smaller streets there whose names I can’t remember. You can look it up under a mapping site if you’re really interested, though.

The area is pretty nice. There are some apartment buildings (kinda blah), some older residential buildings and churches (also blah), and some brownstones (nice, nice, nice).

Anyway, I was looking through some additional photos from my recent Harlem jaunt and found the one in the above link. It isn’t a particularly interesting picture, but the park has a link to a recent news story and I wanted to provide a little visual context.

I wasn’t aware of it, but each Friday night for a very long time (from what the article indicated), drummers have gathered in the park to do weekly celebrations. And share it with the neighbors. The area is gentrifying big time and the locals have grown overly weary of the drumming. Apparently, they’ve finally come to an agreement to push the drummers further into the park and give the residents some acoustic relief.

Good luck, but the park ain’t that big, folks. And further in that park means higher.

-H

Categories: Harlem, Manhattan, Wanderings

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Grand Central Terminal (Grand Central Station)

August 12, 2007

My old camera’s ability to take a viewable photo of Grand Central’s peak was….abysmal. However, with my new camera, I can do a bit better. The question is whether I can get it to size correctly. (UPDATE: I’m now using a width and height setting gimmick. I think it works.)

On the left: Hercules (Heracles); symbolizing strength. On the right, Athena; symbolizing wisdom. In the center, Mercury: speed and commerce.

Nowadays, the only trains that come into Grand Central are commuter trains and subways. I always used to call it “Grand Central Station”, which I still do on occasion. However, the official name was changed long ago to Grand Central Terminal. The proof is in the picture. My shorthand for it is usually just “Grand Central”.

One of the things I find interesting about GCT is that the front doors are more historically interesting than they are impressive.

Just after entering, you run into Vanderbilt Hall. This is just half of it.

And then, just a little further in, the famous clock (as in “meet me under the clock” which is an old time phrase). Even today, when you go there, you’ll see dozens of people waiting for others “under the clock”. The clock is in the “Grand Concourse” area.

Here’s the Grand Concourse itself:

There’s lots and lots more about GCT that I’ll show over time, but it and the Chrysler Building are my two favorite buildings in NYC. And, I think that’s true of a lot of New Yorkers.

And, wouldn’t you know it, they are right next door to one another. Okay, not exactly, but yeah, right next door.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Wanderings

Comments: 1 Comment

Buddy, can you spare $1.285 million?

August 11, 2007

As I was walking around Harlem’s 123rd/124th Street and Lenox, I was taken by the sight of the local Seventh Day Adventist Church. No particular reason; it’s just a standard NYC church building with some nice color. I was walking on the other side of the street and noticed that Weichert Realty was holding an open house at about the same level as the church and, on a lark, stopped to see what was for sale. I’ve done this before in Harlem, but haven’t really been tempted by what I’ve seen.

The realtor was happy to provide some information and I found a very nice little deal that I won’t be taking advantage of…at least for now.

Right next to the realty open house there was a set of “brownstones” (these are three to five story homes that are townhouse/rowhouse format, but generally are build with large local stones). She pointed one of them out and said that they had it for sale and would I be interested? I said my usual: if I were buying again, Harlem would be high on my list. However, I was just sort of checking in on the opportunities. She was undaunted and proceeded to describe the place: five floors, part commercially zoned, part residential. Eighteen feet wide and 60 to 75 feet deep (the building) with the lot being 100 feet deep. Okay, at 18x60x5 stories, that’s 5,400 square feet. At 75 feet deep, that’s 6,750. The price would be between $238 and $190 per square foot (if the measures were true and NYC brokers always overestimate square footage). That’s a real bargain.

The downsides: no parking, frontage on a major avenue (Lenox), and it needs a “gut renovation”. That’s New Yorkish for “mega-bucks”.

The upsides: the commercial part would benefit from the major avenue, “olde tyme” wonderful wordwork, and a first-rate view.

Here’s what the place looks like:

I only see four floors, but the realtor said there were five. Whatever. Unfortunately, the resident caretaker was taking an extended break and the broker couldn’t get us in. I returned twice over a 90-minute period to see if he had shown up, but not luck. I did take a look through the window and saw that the wood was really nice.

And here’s the view from the top step. Pretty cool. (Click the picture for the full view.)

-H

Categories: Harlem, Manhattan, Wanderings

Comments: 3 Comments

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