Bluejake

It was too hot for skating today- 90 degrees and humid like a swamp. By the time I was halfway up the Brooklyn Bridge I was already covered in sweat- but I refused to turn back. I had been planning this skate for a long time- ever since Two Bridges back in April. There is something mysterious and abandoned about much of Red Hook, and even though I grew up about a mile away, it remains largely a mystery to me. I decided to head in via Brooklyn Heights. The promenade had been totally repaved, and it was empty and fast today. I paused for five minutes to look at the skyline, and then headed up Hicks Street. As Hicks crosses Atlantic, it runs next to the BQE. Robert Moses must have knocked down the block West of Hicks to put the road in- one of the many terrible things he did when he was "improving" our city's infrastructure. Looking at the buildings on the East side of the street, with their old spiral staircases on the outside and red brick walls, made me wonder what we lost.

After a few more blocks I switched to Columbia Street and then over to Van Brundt and a few others before reaching the pier off Coffey Street. The streets were strangely empty- it's like the BQE just choked the neighborhood to death and it still hasn't grown back. There are old one story barbershops and small restaurants, but mostly it's just emptiness- large warehouses and the entrances to the docks along the bay. Staring at the giant cranes on one side and the empty streets on the other is kind of creepy- the most silent place I've ever been in New York. In spirit the neighborhood shares a lot with Vinegar Hill, but it's built on a much larger scale. I spent a few minutes hanging out on the pier, watching the boats cross between Brooklyn and Governor's Island and staring at the Wall Street Skyscrapers on the other side. There were a bunch of guys fishing and one kid who kept diving into the river and climbing back out.

Afterwards, I skated down Beard Street and out onto another pier beyond the Red Hook ball fields. It was so strangely peaceful- even though there were about a thousand kids from the Red Hook Projects yelling and running around fifty yards away. I stood on the pier and looked East toward the docks along Second Avenue- it was the first time I'd ever seen them from this side. Later, I skated through Carroll Gardens and spotted something really weird- a sign for "West 9th Street". Now, I've been around Brooklyn and seen East 9th Street (in Kensington), South 9th Street and North 9th Street (in Williamsburg), but I thought all the West streets were just called by the street number. For instance, 4th Street. The only time you see West numbers are in Bay Ridge- but this must be some relic from times past. Later on, I went up into Park Slope for some BBQ. I ate way too much (1 hot dog, 1 sausage, 1 piece of chicken, 1 steak) and felt pretty sick on the way home. Even so- it only took thirty-five minutes to cross from Park Slope to SoHo over the Manhattan Bridge.

Skating