Nostrand Ave from Eastern Parkway to Kings Highway

I can let the two videos speak for me, but for those you can't view them, or don't wish to, here's the gist of the beginning:

In the past, I've taken the L train from Grand Street to Broadway Junction to catch an A train that's two quick stops to Nostrand. So I tried doing the same thing with the 3 train. And here's the problem. Besides the longer ride to Livonia Aveune to switch to the 3 train, the connection is literally a 3-block walk away. For part of it, there's a walkway, but they you have to descend to the street and climb back up to the 3 platform. And unlike the A train, the 3 is a local. There was an express waiting at Utica, but I didn't know when it was going to leave. I got to Nostrand less than a minute after the express train.

Total time: 40 minutes. That seems too much. I could've just taken a bus down Nostrand in less time.

The first two pictures I took were the south side of Eastern Parkway (I'm usually walking on the north side) and a look south down Nostrand Ave.

The first local business I came to was a comic shop. I refrained from browsing. My comic buying days are (mostly) behind me. And I'd gotten a late start on my walk even before the train ride. Still, I took a picture for future reference. I may be by here again.

Construction going on. The neighborhood is going to change. It'll be "coming up". If this stays on the avenue and leaves the side streets alone, it could be a good thing. Otherwise, gentrification will change the character of the neighborhood. How affordable will those units be? Time will tell if your guesses are correct.

Next up was the Church of St. Francis of Assisi – St. Blaise at Lincoln Rd. The parish was established in 1989 (and merged together in 1905).

Time to make the chicken! According to Google Maps, this part of Nostrand Ave is Little Caribbean and Little Haiti.

One of those Burger Kings leftover from the late 19th century. It just seems so out of place, but what else are you going to do with the building? And it's probably landmarked. I didn't stop in.

This arch caught my attention. Also, from across the the street, I thought the address was 1,111. No. There are 5 (not even four) vertical bars. The actual adress is below that.

These three houses look like they'd fit in on any side street in the neighborhood. And yet they look out of place on Nostrand Ave itself. I couldn't imagine having kids in the front yard of one of these houses just because of all the noise and the foot traffic. In any case, I took a picture because the houses are obviously old and (maybe less obviously, maybe not) they may not be there for much longer. You can see the construction going on next door.

St. Jerome's Church on the corner of Newkirk and Nostrand. We're getting close to Brooklyn College, and I'd walked down to Newkirk Plaza many times, and yet, I don't remember passing this building before. This isn't to say that I haven't passed it, just that I don't remember it.

A video store! An actual video store. If it wasn't so late, I might've checked it out to see what kind of videos that they had and if they were rentals or sales.

I stopped to record a video at the Flatbush Ave Junction, not to be confused with Broadway Junction or any other junction. As a kid, this is where we took the IRT from Borough Hall to the end of the line at Flatbush and then walked down past Kings Highway to get to my grandfather's house. The alternative was three buses, which took well over an hour even if you made good connections. And then for four years, this was my daily stop to get to Brooklyn College. Mostly harmless but there were a couple of evenings when someone tried to intimidate the kid who didn't belong there. And, of course, I wasn't standing there filming for more than two seconds will somone was already honking at me!

Final picture I took was of yet more buildings that have gone up. Is it enough to keep rents at a reasonable level? Or will the location near the Flatbush Ave terminal draw more people to the neighborhood and make it more desireable? Probably the latter. The other thing that occurred to me was if large buildings like this keep going up even farther down Nostrand, maybe the city would consider extending the IRT 2 and 5 lines. That isn't going to happen -- and if it did, it'll take a decade just to start planning it.

That's it for today. The days are getting longer but the weather is turning colder again, so it'll be a few days before I'm out there again.