Kings (County) and Dog Day Afternoon- #AtoZChallenge

Kings County, New York - a place that most people know as Brooklyn - was where my father was born, and grew up.  In fact, a lot of people living in the United States can trace their origins back to Brooklyn.

When people think of New York City, they think giant skyscrapers, world class museums, and huge crowds.  But there is a lot more to New York City than midtown Manhattan.  Today, I want to show you some of that other world.

I never lived in Kings County - all right, let's call it Brooklyn - but I still have family there.  My best friend growing up lived in Brooklyn for over 40 years before her untimely death from cancer, and another high school friend still lives in Brooklyn.

Kingsborough Community College Campus, May of 2013 (several months after Superstorm Sandy). Yes, this is New York City.

Kings Highway, in Brooklyn - neighborhood pride.

Another Kings Highway picture.

Not only trees grow in Brooklyn, but a lot of flower gardening goes on there.  This nursery is in the Red Hook neighborhood.

But I did promise you a story about "Dog Day Afternoon". This vacant building in the Kings County neighborhood of Gravesend (Avenue P and East 3rd Street) was the Chase Manhattan Bank that was robbed on August 22, 1972, leading to the hostage drama recounted in the movie "Dog Day Afternoon".  The story is fascinating - reality writes much better stories than any of us can.

I was still living in the Bronx at the time - this was indeed a memory of my young adulthood.

A blast from the past - the news coverage of that day.

And, in the spring of 2013, spring flowers bloomed on a beautiful May day.

Do you want to see more of the Brooklyn tourists rarely get to see?  Try these posts:
Brooklyn months after Superstorm Sandy
A Bloom Grows in Brooklyn
A Rose Blooms in Brooklyn 

"K" Day on the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Memories of 2012

This past week, I made two trips to Brooklyn.   One trip was (as it turned out) to say goodbye to a seriously ill friend.  The other trip, yesterday, was to sit shiva (a Jewish mourning ritual) with her family. 

The house where you visit is unlocked.  When you enter, you do not speak unless and until you are spoken to.  The immediate family of the deceased sit on stools or boxes lower than the visitors.  They do not wear any leather.   Mirrors (in some houses) are covered. There is a lot of other symbolism, something that is comforting to the mourners.

Most importantly, memories are shared.

 The past few days my memories of my friend have been running in my mind, almost like a movie.  It was comforting to sit with my friend's sisters and nieces and share some memories.


I was with my late friend when we took the walk that resulted in the pictures below.

I'd like to share these memories with you, my readers, also, with some updates and edits.  In the midst of destruction, there is also hope, and renewal.  I will remember that in the days to come.

Memories (September 2012)

We were there a month before Sandy.

So many of the scenes were too familiar, 14 months after my neighborhood in Westover, near Johnson City, New York, flooded - except we didn't have the strong winds, or the sea water, or 15 foot waves bearing down on us, like the waterfront neighborhoods of NYC.

It took me a month to search online for the fate of Red Hook after Sandy hit.  I already knew it in my heart.

I don't want to show you pictures of the destruction, although the NY Times wrote a heartbreaking article about the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook that won my heart during two visits this year.  And now it's been undone by the same sea that gave it identity.  Can the community be rebuilt?

(The answer was "yes").

New York City is not just midtown Manhattan.  Its people will surprise and amaze you. 

Let us remember the Red Hook of September, 2012 and not the Red Hook of late October, 2012.

The best Key Lime pies in the world - will they be able to recover?  (They did, and reopened a block or two away, in a better location.)

Pre Civil War warehouse.

And a view from afar.



The Fairway, in another historic warehouse building, was flooded with over 7 feet of water, and they lost everything. (They reopened, too.)



One more view of Fairway.  My friend loved this store and loved the key lime pies of Steve's. At one point, they helped sooth her and allowed her to get some nourishment.

In spirit, I walked down Van Brunt Street in Red Hook yesterday.  In spirit, I visited the Pier 44 gardens as the imaginary winds of late fall blew against me.

And now, like Red Hook, I move forward.

This is my post for the #Septemberchallenge, hosted by Everyday Gyaan.

The Gamechanger

It's one year since Superstorm Sandy made landfall on the East Coast of New York City.  Tonight, communities on the shore remember with lit candles and flashlights.

As my regular readers may recall, I was born in the Rockaways, in New York City, one of the areas tragically affected. From afar (over 150 miles away away), I tried to use social media to keep track of what my relatives and friends in New York City were experiencing.

This kayak on a Brooklyn street some distance from the ocean (photo taken by a friend) was just the tip of the damage.

A year later, enough damage still remains, although the recovery continues.

We can remember what was, in a visit I made to Red Hook (another affected neighborhood, in Brooklyn) shortly before Sandy .  And, indeed, I've walked the streets of Red Hook again, as I promised to do in that post.

I want to share some photos with you, on this first anniversary of Sandy, of hope reborn in Red Hook.

In some places, when I visited in May, the damage was quite apparent.

But nearby, an open garden center was selling blooms.

A Red Hook housing project has experienced some rough times.

But, just days after the Boston Marathon bombing, Red Hook was raising money for Boston.

Still, so much work remains.  In another Brooklyn neighbor, Gerrisen Beach (in walking distance of one of my relatives), rebuilding continues amidst frustration.

This kind of story, thanks to climate change, has become way too common throughout our world.

At a recent local meeting of our neighborhood and town regarding our own post-flood issues from Tropical Storm Lee in September of 2011, officials called Sandy "the gamechanger".

It was the event that made New York State finally take notice, they said, of all that has been happening with our weather.

I hope our officials are right.

Sustainable Saturday - Red Hook Strong(er) In 2013

Red Hook is a neighborhood in Brooklyn that had seen better days, had seen a period of decline, and was starting on its way back up.   I had visited it a couple of times last year with friends, and found a lot to intrigue me.


Then, along came "Superstorm" Sandy last October, which hit New York City and surrounding areas full on.

If you think Red Hook was brought low by Sandy, fugetaboutit.  As I blogged about last year, neighborhoods can be "sustainable".  There is a lot of heart in this neighborhood and a lot of small businesses.  Those businesses, including one I visited in September, are struggling to recover.

Now, we are six months past Sandy.  What is Red Hook like?  There is a lot of recovery - and a lot of work still needing to be done. 



When you enter Red Hook, this is what you see-pure urban grit.

 

This shows some of the work that still needs to be done.  In a nearby area, I smelled a very familiar smell - flood smell.  It's a smell you don't forget, and I smelled a lot of it in my neighborhood in September of 2011 after Tropical Storm Lee.

A few blocks away, a garden center was open for business.

Beautiful plants for sale in the garden center contrasted with the gritty neighborhood surrounding it.

Nearby gardens I saw in September are gone for now, but progress in restoring them is being made.

I will leave you today with a picture of the Red Hook waterfront.

In the coming weeks in my blog- one Red Hook small business fights back, and a larger one that has been one of the driving forces in the Red Hook revitalization reopens.

Memories

We were there a month before Sandy, and now it is gone.

So many of the scenes were too familiar, 14 months after my neighborhood in Westover, near Johnson City, New York, flooded - except we didn't have the strong winds, or the sea water, or 15 foot waves bearing down on us, like the waterfront neighborhoods of NYC.

It took me a month to search online for the fate of Red Hook.  I already knew it in my heart.

I don't want to show you pictures of the destruction, although the NY Times wrote a heartbreaking article about the Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook that won my heart during two visits this year.  And now it's been undone by the same sea that gave it identity.  Can the community be rebuilt?

The residents now face a hard road back. Many residents of my neighborhood of Westover walked this road over a year ago.  Some still do.

New York City is not just midtown Manhattan.  Its people will surprise and amaze you.  I have confidence that Red Hook will return.

Let us remember the Red Hook of September, 2012 and not the Red Hook of late October, 2012.

The best Key Lime pies in the world - will they be able to recover?

Pre Civil War warehouse.

And a view from afar.



The Fairway, in another historic warehouse building, was flooded with over 7 feet of water, and they lost everything.




One more view of Fairway.  My friend with cancer loved this store and loved the key lime pies of Steve's.  Now what, for her?

In spirit, I walk down Van Brunt Street.  In spirit, I visit the Pier 44 gardens (now that I finally know their name) once again, as the winds of late fall blow against me.

In my memories I return to a day in late September when I walked those streets with my friend.

I will do so again, one day.

Under the Full Moon, the Real Boo

Who needs a fake Halloween haunted event when Nature gives you the Real Boo?

(Witch decoration on Vestal Rail Trail, Vestal, NY courtesy of AM)


My home neighborhood, where I spent part of my babyhood (Arverne,in the Rockaways section of New York City) is flooded.  Rockaway Beach is flooded.  Power shut off in parts of Lower Manhattan.  13 feet of water at the Battery. Subways in danger of flooding.  Reading Twitter, some massive transformer explosion, huge green flash and East Village goes dark. But first some one tweeted a photo, with cars floating down the street under an eerie yellow glow.

The Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook, that I blogged about several times in September, is flooding.  High tide came - under a full moon.  Could you make this up?

And then there is The Crane. The huge crane dangling in midtown Manhattan, looking like something melted it.  As of this writing, it's still there.

I'm crying out to NYC friends on Facebook:  are you there? One responds, sending me a map where I can check out power outages.  Looking at this, I think a cousin has lost power and he later posts on Facebook that he, indeed, has lost power.  Someone in Bensonhurst (a neighborhood in Brooklyn) says the downed power lines are putting out quite the fireworks show.

The Daily News (one of NYC's papers) is flooding.  So much for The News.

A cousin in Harrisburg, PA lost power for a while and has water in his basement.

We made the right call in insisting my elderly mother in law and her disabled son, who live in the metro area, stay with a relative.  Power is out where my mother in law lives now, and, knowing their electric utility, it could take days to be restored.  Normally, she doesn't flood and didn't flood during Irene. Let's hope she doesn't now, either.

State of emergency here in Johnson City NY, 150 long miles away from NYC.  But, the weather here is actually less dire than first predicted.  We lucked out.  Hope I'm not too premature in saying that.

I'm prewriting this so I can post immediately upon waking up today, or in case my power is out.  I won't know what I will be waking up to.

To all my readers in the path of Sandy...I hope dawn finds you safe and undamaged.  I know what the family of NYC residents will do.  You will all unite and get things done.  NYC residents are proud, and are survivors.

You will survive.  And I will be with you in spirit.

Civil War Sunday - The Liberty Warehouse

The four of us were walking in Brooklyn on Friday when the young man approached us.

He smiled and said to us, "you look like tourists.  Do you want to know something about the history of this area?"

We did.  We were in a neighborhood called Red Hook (from the Dutch Roode Hoeck), one of six Dutch villages that became Breuklelen (Brooklyn).  The "roode" came from the red soil.  The "hoeck" means point, not "hook".  If you look at a map, you'll see what they meant.

The young man continued, "did you notice how a lot of buildings have the name "Liberty" in them? Like the building you are standing next to?"  Sure enough.....

"Many of these buildings pre date the Civil War", the young man informed us.  "They were used as munition warehouses".

So when I got home, I did a little research.  He was right about the age of the warehouse.  This building, the Liberty Warehouse, dates from the 1850's.  It is a wedding venue today.

In the 1850's and 1860's, Brooklyn was not part of New York City. It was a separate city.

During the Civil War, Brooklyn was the third largest city in the country.  Prior to the Civil War, Robert E. Lee was stationed at Ft. Hamilton in Brooklyn. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was stationed at Ft. Hamilton also, and baptized in Brooklyn. Ft. Hamilton is still an active military base.

The ironclad U.S.S. Monitor was built in another neighborhood of Brooklyn, Greenpoint.

A fascinating book on Brooklyn and the Civil War was published earlier this year. Highly recommended if you want to read more on this topic.

I'm not sure, though, about the connection between "Liberty" in the name of the warehouse and its Civil War link.  I suspect the "liberty" comes from Red Hook's closeness to the Statue of Liberty.  The weather conditions didn't allow me to photograph it, but on a clear day, the Statue of Liberty is very visible from Red Hook.

No matter where we live, we walk in history.

Sustainable Saturday - How to Build Community

Red Hook, Brooklyn, continues to amaze as I read more about it.  Yesterday, I visited for the third time.  Unlike the previous two times, when I came only to shop at the fantastic Fairway supermarket, I roamed around a small part of the community.

How to Build Community.   I had to photograph this idealistic sign.  Not a sign I would expect to find in a neighborhood of New York City that - let's face it - has seen some very rough times.

I can only hope that the people of Red Hook live up to this sign.

We found a little garden nearby, which does not appear to be one of the community or urban farms in the area.  The gate was open, so we went in and looked around.

 I can not seem to find any discussion of "Red Hook Farm" online.  What I did find is the Red Hook Community Farm, which sounds like my adopted "home town" Binghamton, New York's VINES, but on a much larger scale.  But this looked more like a demonstration garden.

 If anyone can solve the mystery of this garden, I would love to hear from you.

Strangely, some of the plantings seemed to be brand new, such as some young pole beans.  In New York City, the growing season has perhaps another month to go.

Others,such as this eggplant, were still in full swing. 

Nearby was a walk planted with native plants.  And, across the water, the Statue of Liberty, shrouded in humidity (making a picture with my iPhone impossible), completed the captivating feature.

Red Hook still has a long way to go in its recovery, but in a strange way, it has put hooks into me, the person who grew up in New York City and left many years ago because she just wanted to get out of there in the worst way.

I will be back.