Found photo: young man

Don’t worry, it’s more high school than milk carton. Litter would make me crazier if I didn’t find the occasional treasure, like this.

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While your flats are being fixed

When I need a flat-fix place, it’s never convenient to food and drink that I actually want, like that at Bar Tano.

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A good day for pie

Well, it would be, except Four & Twenty Blackbirds, at the corner of Third Avenue and 8th Street, is on closed for vacation until August 6. (I took this picture last week.) The shop looks like a place you’d run across in the country. Yes, that place in your imagination where delicious, homemade food – desserts only! – is served up six days a week.

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The Eagle sign on a gray day

The Eagle sign is no Kentile sign, but we are fond of it as a local landmark. As the Kentile and Eagle factories are defunct, there will come a day when these vestiges of old Brooklyn fall apart. Gowanus will have a little less personality.

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3rd Avenue Building

It looks like a two-tone wall, but it’s a building along Third Avenue. Keep walking to the right and you’ll soon see signs of civilization, the Eagle Clothes sign and Halyards Bar.

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Future home of your organic food

After eight years of discussions, disagreements, and resubmissions, the Board of Standards and Appeals has approved Whole Food’s proposal for a 58,000 square foot store at the corner of Third Avenue and Third Street. The Gowanus is the barrier on the lot’s other long side. Nothing will grow here, except for a few weeds, because of the contamination.

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Halyards Bar & Daylight Savings

It’s a fine moment in spring when you can stop in a joint after work, have a cheap happy-hour beer, and read the paper by the sun coming in the window.

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View of sunset from Third Avenue

The Gowanus Canal, our local Superfund site, sprouts several watery arms along its length – this picture was taken at the end of one, at Third Avenue. The chain link on the bridge here is small-gauge, so people can only throw tiny objects in the water. The Kentile sign is to the left of the setting sun.

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Rain, buses, roadwork

You’ve been on the road over an hour and you’re two miles from home. There’s still time to turn around and go home. Thanksgiving in Brooklyn is a lovely thing; I learned the hard way.

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Cozy afternoon

You can tell this is a bar and not someone’s house because there are framed warnings on the wall about drinking and pregnancy and what to do if someone’s choking. There’s a party going on, and it’s been planned early, so the kids won’t be tired and the hipsters coming later won’t be tired of the kids.

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