POSTCARDS from BROOKLYN
Brooklyn has been on my list of places to go for a few years now as I have been reading and hearing lots of interesting things about its renaissance.
Link: Brooklyn 101
I was a bit jealous when I recently learned my friend Tom Tittemore (architect and public art advocate) was heading to Brooklyn so I told him to take lots of photos and perhaps think about doing guest blog.
And he did....
Postcards from Tom
I recently enjoyed my fifth visit to New York City, and planned a day visit to Brooklyn as part of my ambitious itinerary. This Borough of NYC was a complete mystery to me, although walking across the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time on New Year’s Day in 2015 provided some initial, fleeting glimpses. Coney Island, Carol King and the Brooklyn Dodgers were some of the cultural references I had accumulated over the years relative to this renowned community.
Joined by my wife Carol, and dear friends Terry and Denise from Kitchener, I embarked on the ‘F’ subway mid-morning from the Rockefeller Station in Midtown Manhattan. Upon leaving the underground section beneath the East River, the ‘F’ line continued on an elevated platform for the better part of an hour, offering wonderful vistas of Brooklyn until we reached the end terminal at Coney Island.
The Atlantic Ocean, Brighton Beach, protruding wharves, the Boardwalk, embellished storefronts and rectangular designated ride ‘precincts’ define the ‘layered’ parti of this iconic midway. I took a ride on the ‘Cyclone’, constructed in the late 1920s and a true Mecca for rollercoaster enthusiasts. Enjoying the front seat solo, my smile changed quickly to a grimace once the G forces kicked in on the first vertical plunge. Exhilarating!!
My return destination on the ‘F’ Line took us through the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, where I discovered Atlantic Avenue, an older distant cousin of 9th Avenue in Inglewood. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to explore nearby Brooklyn Heights Brownstone residential neighborhoods, nor the famed Brooklyn Museum. Next time …
Atlantic Avenue’s western end merges gracefully into the promenade of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, an inspiring redevelopment of the former Brooklyn dockyards. A number of the former piers have been repurposed into popular recreation zones. Pier 3 is a soccer pitch and Pier 5 accommodates a number of short basketball courts. Along the entire Parkway, tremendous vistas of lower Manhattan are presented, ending, of course, at the Brooklyn Bridge.
My second trek across the Bridge was every bit as memorable as the first. Crowded, a bit dangerous with cyclist sharing the route – a complete New York experience.
The north-east ‘F’ Line concludes at the Jamaica Station in Queens. Guess where I’m going next time I visit The Big Apple!
Lessons Learned
The overall subway experience highlighted by the Rockefeller Centre station, the panoramic, above grade trip through Brooklyn itself, the middle / Coney Island Station, and the end / Grand Central Station made me think Calgary should aspire to having a light rail transit system with such iconic and memorable stations that invite people to simply travel the system for its own sake and explore the city.
The development of Calgary’s Bow River promenade has the same basis as the Brooklyn Bridge Park, albeit on a significantly reduced scale: meandering beside a significant river, views to prominent and in most cases good architecture, places for rest and people watching, natural landscaping, higher density housing, complimentary pedestrian and cycling lanes, local history made it a very pleasant experience.
Brooklyn Bridge reminded me that sometimes, you need to invest in unique and iconic artifacts to celebrate the place where you live and make the basic needs of walking – memorable!
Tom Tittemore
Now I'm really jealous...
I'd love to flaneur DUMBO, short for “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass” which has become Brooklyn's most expensive neighborhood, as well as New York City's fourth-richest community overall owing to its large concentration of technology startups, its close proximity to Manhattan and its large number of former industrial buildings that have been converted into spacious luxury residential lofts.
The neighborhood currently serves as the corporate headquarters for e-commerce retailer Etsy, home furnishing store West Elm and Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG) architects who just happen to be the architects of Calgary’s newest signature building Telus Sky.
The Brooklyn Bridge is not only an architectural/engineering gem, it is a popular commuter route with 10,000 pedestrians and 3,500 cyclists on weekdays and this total can swell to 30,000+ on weekends in the summer. It is often called the “Times Square In the Sky” because it is such a popular public space like Times Square.
It is 1825m long or about 14 times the length of Calgary’s Peace Bridge. This is on my "bucket list."
I would also like to check out the Brooklyn Bridge Park to see how it compares to other river parks I have experienced in other cities from Hong Kong to Frankfurt, from Berlin to Calgary.
And I love wandering residential urban streets, so Brooklyn Height's brownstones will be at the top of my list.
Unlike Tom, when I go to Brooklyn it will be for at least a week, not a day.
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