Walkin' In Brooklyn

On a recent trip, I went to fix out some of the last streets I need to walk in Bath Beach , which runs south to Bay 50th Street . I don't know where the boundary would or should be. At this point, below Bay 50th, I wasn't in Coney Island yet, so the only other thing you might call it is Gravesend . The streets align with Gravesend, but the train yard slices these streets away from the rest. Basically, a bunch of streets and avenues are orphaned, cut off from the rest of their kind. In short, my trip took me up and down one Bay street, four West streets (plus part of Stillwell Ave), two lettered avenues, a piece of Shore Parkway , and a short "place". I found that a couple streets listed on Google Maps do not exist, or they are private roads, even if they have names.  The creepiest street, even in the middle of the day, was West 13th Street . It extends for one block in either direction from Ave Z, ending in Dead Ends in each direct

Last year, for some reason, I got a lot of sponsored ads on Facebook for the Brooklyn Army Terminal . So I took a trip down there. Disappointing. There was nothing there, except the pier for the ferry and the view of the harbor, but there are other places to view the harbor, which are closer to the Statue of Liberty . There are also a bunch of blank, stark buildings down there. If there's anything in them, I saw no signage, and I wasn't going to snoop around uninvited at some place called an "Army Terminal". Maybe I missed out. More interesting was the walk I took down the entire length of First Avenue . In hindsight, I wish I'd taken more pictures. First Avenue looks like something that hasn't moved out of the Post-war era. It's "riverfront" property that's overdue for a make-over and facelift. It's a prime spot for development and over-development. And when that finally happens, it will be a sad thing. The only sa

I laugh now when I think about it, but my trip down the entire length of Stillwell Ave last June was my first "long" trip. Looking back, it wasn't really that long at all compared to some of my current outings. Even adding in walking down to the surf, and along the boardwalk and part of Ocean Parkway, it wasn't a long route. Stillwell Ave runs a little over two miles from Bay Parkway and Bay Ridge Parkway (75th Street) down to the Coney Island Boardwalk. This was the first time I'd every walked to Coney Island. Before that, I tended to follow bus routes, in case I got tired. That meant taking a longer route, so naturally I convinced myself I was tired by the time a bus came along. Not to mention, prior attempts were usually in the summer in the middle of the day. This one was early June, midmorning, and partially shaded by the elevated train. I actually did think to take some pictures on my phone that day, which wasn't easy because my glasses po

A few months back, I was assigned to work at a location at the edge of Bath Beach. I took the opportunity to walk some of the "West" streets into Gravesend . Gravesend was one of the original villages that eventually combined to create Brooklyn . If you look at a map (see the Google Maps image), you can see what remains of some of the original streets, set at an angle to the rest of Gravesend, and to Bath Beach and Bensonhurst. Even more interesting is that square that just doesn't quite fit into the rectangular grid. However, I got to that another day. Village Road North runs into Ave U and creates a triangle with Lake Street . I've passed it before but never really looked at it. I know this, because had I looked, I would've learned something. I knew that Gravesend was an old village, but I never thought much about the name. It's located, more or less, near the end of Brooklyn. And I figured it had something to do with cemeteries. (Note

I have lived in Brooklyn, NY, all my life. Born and raised here. My father, who lived through the Depression, used to walk all over with my brother and me. For instance, if we went to the Prospect Park Zoo, we'd walk up the slope to the park, and across the park, and down the hill to the back entrance by the elephants. I think I was an adult the first time I walked down those steps from Flatbush Ave. I still like to walk, and in the past decade or so, I started walking more for exercise. However, I seemed to walk the same circuit of blocks near my house. I started traveling to Coney Island on summer mornings to walk the Boardwalk before it got to hot, or ventured over to the bottom of the Greenway in lower Manhattan. A little over a year ago, in May 2019, I decided that there was more of Brooklyn to see. I downloaded an app, and started tracking the streets I walked down on any given outing. I hit a few snags in my plan (personal issues and pandemics and such), but I still manag