Friday, September 19, 2014

In the 60s




By 60th Street, it was time to get Third Avenue crossings done with.  I headed west of Third & walked the Third/Second blocks as far as the Towers of Bay Ridge at 65th Street, by which point the expressway had split in two - Gowanus & Belt - and Third was free again!  The Fifth to Third blocks would be walked later.
Again I find just how different the identities of neighboring blocks can be.  On 60th, a row of fire-escapes seem to cage in the worn apartment buildings they grip onto.  This is a mixed-use block, with businesses like Quickly Done auto repair, Magical Years nursery daycare, and The Meat Club, shouting out its name in fat blue-on-yellow letters.

















Turn into 61st and you might as well be in Bay Ridge already. This is the most bucolic & quietly prosperous block I've seen in all my walks between Third & Second . Yellow-bricked, round-bayed rowhouses line each side of the street.  There are tall trees & lush pocket-sized front gardens. Roses grow.  It feels like closely guarded territory - oasis and fortress all in one.  On 62nd, more recent, detached homes (40s?) look like nothing else I've seen around here, as suburban as you'll get west of the expressway.  A proud, neatly kept street with a flag in almost every yard, and cars pulled up in driveways.  A street of shrubbery. A street of rational dreams, achievable goals, and steady, incremental progress.  I'm getting ready to turn around and head back in the opposite direction.





















To follow: onward to 65th!

2 comments:

Jack said...

That block on 62nd is one my favorite hidden gems of Brooklyn. I've always assumed that the houses were originally Officers quarters for the Army.

onemorefoldedsunset said...

Thanks - I bet you're right about a military connection. What an interesting corner!