Well they are to someone. The fine folks at Forgotten New York are featuring Ocean Ave and they used the doorway of the apartment building I grew up in to shout about it.
Really, I lived on the 4th floor of 2261 Ocean Ave till I was almost 6. I attended half a year of kindergarten around the corner at PS 255.
After my family moved out to larger digs on Bedford Ave
Of course she was right. I knew we faced Ocean Ave and our fire escape was in the front. My room was on the 4th floor on the left side of the photo.
I Mighta gotten the address wrong, but now I remember the window.
I remember looking out that window in the Summer of 1969. Looking at the Moon and straining to see Neil Armstrong.
I remember asking my dad why people count sheep when they can't sleep. He said that the shepherds used to drive their herds of sheep on Ocean Ave at night and if you were up late you could count them
But how do you know who the few are and how many the many are? Who am I? Am I the one? One of the few? Or am I part of the many who get their needs met?
Spock knew what to do. But this past weekend all people knew what to do was complain. There was a lot going on in Prospect Park. Early last week The Great Googa Mooga moved in. This was its second year and a lot of people were freaking out because they were probably going to damage the park again and only pay $75,000. Well, I know the people who are in charge of Special Events and they don't like looking bad, so I am pretty sure they will do a better job at documenting and billing any damage this year. If they don't, the media will.
I have mixed feelings. On one hand, lots of things happen in public parks for private gain. Restaurants are in parks. City Field and Yankee Stadium are actually in parks. I have participated in and organized many races in public parks. Parades and fairs close our streets on a regular basis. Movie shoots make our lives nuts (A few blocks from my house Will Ferrell is filing the more of The Anchorman and this afternoon I will have to move my car for some tv show . Saturday morning, during the Googa Mooga, the Brooklyn Half Marathon passed through Prospect Park and then cut Brooklyn in half. I was the "Team Leader" for the fluid station.in Prospect Park. For a great blog post on what that morning was like click through to Qaptain Qwerty's post.. I can tell you first hand that from 7:30 to 8:30 that morning it was basically impossible to cross the roadway in prospect park because there were so many runners. Hey, on Saturday evening, my daughter attended a Bat Mitzva in Prospect Park's Picnic House. The only time anyone can ever go into that building if it is rented out for a private event. So, lots of things happen in public places that limit access to the public
On the other hand, the Great Googa was not about community or charity or food or music. It was about profit. It was organized by Superfly, a for profit event management company. According to Wikipedia.....
The company was founded in 1996 by Jonathan Mayers, Rick Farman, Richard Goodstone and Kerry Black.[2]
After gaining notoriety as hosts of after-hours events during the New Orleans Jazz Fest and Mardi Gras, Superfly's owners realized they had hit a plateau, unable to compete with big venues that could profit from alcohol and other sales in addition to ticket fees. They wanted to put on bigger events and came up with the idea of Bonnaroo.[3]
They did not care about the park or the people of Brooklyn. Celebrate Brooklyn brings thousands of people to Prospect Park for music and food and they don't crap all over the park. When I went to the training for Brooklyn Half staff, the NYRR said they will leave the course better than they found it and we did. We didn't clean up because we were worried about being billed, we cleaned up because it was our park and we wanted to wanted to come back to a clean park.
Superfly Productions is a for profit company. The bottom line of their existence is the same as Exxon-Mobil or Monsanto; Profit.
What do they need a fleet of luxury cars for? There is no driving in Prospect Park!!
For a week Well House Drive was turned into a trailer park..
It was not the end of the word, but.......
But this was just wrong. Fencing off a water fountain was wrong on so many levels.
First, this is is a food feast. They were selling food. Perhaps people want to drink some free water. Maybe they don't want to pay for plastic bottles of water.
Second, this fence was there for days before the mooga began and I took this photo after it was over. For no reason at all they were keeping me from a drink.
Finally, they could have with a little effort put that fence on the other side of the fountain.
So, I am not saying that we should not have events like the Not-So Great Great GoogaMooga, we just have to make sure they respect our public places. Because if we don't Prospect Park will become Disney World.
Sometimes you are one of the many and sometimes you are one of the few.
and another thing.
Hating on the Googa Mooga because you think it is for "hipsters" is no better than hating on rap music because you think it is for people who don't look like you. I gave my free tickets away, but I have no problem with the people who enjoyed the event.
Yesterday I combined a long run with an opportunity to pick up my MIL. I ran down to Sheepshead Bay. A straight line would not have been enough mileage, so I took the coastal route.
I documented a big chunk of this run here in 2009. I was just about to type something like this.
I did not take this picture, it is from their website. The guards were serious about "no photographs". I was not gonna push my luck. In October of 2001 I ran there. When I was a block from the building I noticed that the road was blocked by a van. I man got out wearing body armor (not just a bullet proof vest, he was like a human tank.) Then another man got out wearing the same armor but also holding the biggest gun I ever saw. The first man pointed toward Sunset Park and said, "Halt, go that way." It was the most unambiguous statement I ever heard. There was not a molecule of my body that was going to do anything but "Halt" and "go that way." No questions... The guards at Federal Prisons in October of 2001 were not taking any crap.
Below is a Google Streetview of that spot. You will see that the Google Car could not get any closer to the building either.
Most of where I ran was underwater during The Storm last year. Some places are back to normal. But, the path along the Belt Parkway was busted up in places. Some of the stores in Caesar's Bay are still closed. There are still mountains of sand in Coney Island. Many homes in Manhattan Beach are still boarded up. Not so normal.
At least 5 or 6 years ago I was with a bunch of friends and one of them insisted on using Wikipedia to prove his point. To prove my point that Wikipedia can be fiction I logged in and changed something real to something that was nonsense. I moved a decimal point. Anyone who would read it would know it was wrong.
It stayed like that for years.
click to enlarge
I just happened to go back to Wikipedia and noticed that I had a message.
Below is the corrected segment to Prospect Park's Wikipedia Entry
The Prospect Park Track Club, formed in the early 1970s, organizes regular training runs and races in and around the park. (The park has a 3.35-mile or 5.39 km loop.)[40] TheProspect Park Women's Softball League has been playing softball games on summer evenings in Prospect Park for over 23 years. Circle rules football has been played every weekend from spring through fall at the tip of the Long Meadow nearest Grand Army Plaza since 2007.
You should know, however, that the "loop" is actually closer to 3.33 miles and citation 40 should link to the Prospect Park Alliance, not the Central Park Alliance.
Except maybe beforethesnow.
After my run yesterday I took a crappy phone-photo of one of the Cherry Blossoms in Prospect Park with Grand Army Plaza in the background. We had like a foot of rain this morning. Below is a different view of the same tree, 24 hours later.
I also hitched a ride in a truck to cross this flood on 9th Street.
they made it.
And the ducks will soon move into this flood in Prospect Park.
I went out to do an easy loop of Prospect Park and met one of the fastest guys I know. He wanted to talk to me and was willing to turn his easy run into a jog...... It's been awhile since I ran myself into the ground and I felt pretty high when I got to the top of the hill.
I remember the sky being bluer and the arch being bigger.
I can just see the Schaefer logo going above that door.
But they don't make Schaefer in Brooklyn any more. They used to make a lot of things in Williamsburg that they don't make any more. and check out the Streetview below. It looks like they just recently took away the green sign that cover the Schaefer logo.
Also if you zoom on the door now, it says that the building is home to a movie studio too.
There is a lot going on in Williamsburg. You can tell from this one building that things change. A building that was once home to a brewery is now a special education school for Jewish children and a video studio.
That's ok. My kids go to school in a combination of 2 buildings. One of them was a high school and the other was a newspaper factory. They also share the building with another school. I will get to that latter.
Where is Harry Potter, these things are gonna get me.
Not to worry, my soul is safe. Just a tarp getting old and blowing around. I will just call 311. Click here for a photo of that tarp doing part of it's job
Last week a van and a car had a little dispute and the van wound up on the sidewalk and in a store. You can look at the news story here. CBS News reported that Joggers dodge van seconds before it smashes into Park Slope Deli.
(BTW, do you know the difference between a jogger and a runner? A jogger jumps up and down at a red light and a runner stands there and looks pissed.)
I run by that corner all the time, and I have had more than a few cups of coffee from the guy in the back.
and I am glad nobody got hurt and they are open again.
Well they are to someone. The fine folks at Forgotten New York are featuring Ocean Ave and they used the doorway of the apartment building I grew up in to shout about it.
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