Hollis

A lovely neighborhood - went to check out the Jam Master Jay mural at 205th and Hollis Avenue and the Hip-Hop Museum at Hollis Famous Burgers at 203rd and Hollis. It was a hot day, people were barbequing every block, but no improptu invites - oh well. Hollis Famous Burgers claims Hollis is the most famous neighborhood in New York. What? South Bronx baby!

I was scoping out the joint as a potential dinner stop for my Going Places, Doing Stuff tour, which it ended up being. The museum part's a little sparce (read the Times article), but $4.50 gets you quite the fat cheeseburger. There's definitely something unorthodox about it, but it's good.

Neighborhoods: Hollis, Jamaica, Queens Village. Tracts Walked: Q400, Q402, Q404, Q500, Q502.01, Q502.02, Q504, Q506, Q508, Q510, Q512, Q516, Q518, Q520, Q522, Q524, Q532

What's the opposite of this project?

While Going Places and Doing Stuff with Matt Green and Jason Eppink last Saturday, I came across 13 people doing what is, perhaps, the exact opposite of my project. Instead of trying to see 2217 census tracts once, they were attempting to see one census tract 2217 times - and then another 3432 times for good measure.

The Self-Trancendence 3100 takes place in Queens Census Tract 452 - a sleepy, suburban area near St. John's University that's dominated by the Thomas A Edison technical high school and surrounding yards. The race involves running 3100 miles over almost 2 months around a single city block, bordered by Grand Central Parkway, 164th Place, 85th Avenue, and 168th Street - a total of 5649 laps. There is little that I personally would find more mind-numbing, although one person we talked to who had completed the race swore it wasn't boring. Doing one lap, plus hanging out in the park and walking around the corner for lunch was perfect for me, and quite enough to knock Q452 off the list.

We went on to climb abandoned gas cannisters, skip around a playground with this guy, and break several world records. Big thanks to Matt, Jason, Flux, and the Rude Mechanical Orchestra for putting together a great day.

Neighborhoods: Jamaica, Jamaica Hills. Tracts Walked: Q452

The Bridges of New York County Part 9 - Feelin' Groovy

My Queensboro Bridge story is already written up here, but I'll add a few more pictures - all shot my partner that night Steve Duncan. You can buy the prints if you like. Maybe not the one of me giving the Double Guns though.

The Bridges of New York County Part 8 - Down the East River

Easily the least utilized (but non-abandoned) bridge over the East River is the Ward's Island Pedestrian Bridge. Summer days the bridge is usually down - its accessible position. Throughout the entire Winter, and nights from April to October, the center span is up and the bridge is closed to pedestrians and bikers. Ward's Island has some homeless camps near the bridge (not to mention a psychiatric hospital), and the place is completely deserted at night, but I still have not heard any coherent rationale for not just keeping the bridge down 24-7. Even in the down position it's low enough that almost all boats can fit under, and there's four other ways to walk on and off the island 24-7. One more example of "inaccessibility" being a lazy shortcut for "security."

The second-least-used bridge over the East River is the Roosevelt Island Bridge. I used to live on the Queens side of the Roosevelt Island Bridge. Having it be so close was bad motivation to go climb it - I finally got around to it about a week before I moved, but there's no way to actually get on top of the bridge. The lift room at the top (thankfully, without a pigeon colony like the Broadway Bridge) was as far as I got. One more down, but I can't say it felt terribly significant. You can get just as high up by heading to the top of the parking garage next door.

The Ward's Island Pedestrian Bridge, the Triboro, the George Washington, and the Park Avenue Metro North bridge are the four bridges around Manhattan I've never managed to get on top of. The G.W will let student groups or people with connections up to the top once every blue moon, and I'm pretty confident that sometime in my life I'll be able to tag along. The Park Avenue bridge has recently gotten a lot of new security, and I may have blown my chance at that one, we'll see. The Ward's Island bridge would be pretty cool - we went there one night trying to find a way up, which turned out to involve having to break into the lift rooms. If it had been the Brooklyn Bridge... well, sometimes you do what you gotta do. But criminal trespass for the Ward's Island Pedestrian Bridge is definitely not worth it.

The Triboro I'd certainly like to climb also - I've never been on top of a bridge that narrow for starters - but I can't really say I have a terrible itch for it. It certainly wasn't frustrating to walk across, like the 59th Street bridge was before I managed to get up that.