Downtown Brooklyn traffic cam

Adams Street at Tillary

Brooklyn Bridge in background.

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View from the F Train & a small mystery

Smith Street

The man at Battery Park informed me that, no, they don’t sell batteries. I called because I was hoping. He said, “I dunno,” when I asked where the business’ name came from.

Battery Park Industries is about two miles as the mop flies from Battery Park, Manhattan, and about half that to the Brooklyn entrance of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (at left). These are uncertain times; add this nondescript store to the list of things beyond our understanding.

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Greenwood Avenue footbridge

Notwithstanding the expense and logistics, the footbridge is an efficient solution to the incompatibility of foot and car traffic. I’ve been thinking about this since my visit to Atlantic Mall a couple weeks ago (see December 11 posting). We can dream of a series of connected, elevated walkways over the Flatbush tangle, but it will never happen. In New York City, footbridges are built for pedestrians to cross busy roadways, like the Prospect Expressway.

To construct a bridge exclusively for foot traffic over an intersection would be an admission of failure by the Department of Transportation:  vehicular traffic is out of control, a menace to people attempting to get from one side of the street to the other – we have not done our job.

For pedestrians, there is always the underground alternative of the sprawling Atlantic-Pacific subway  just under the roadway (the B, D, M, N, Q, R, 2, 3, 4, 5  subway lines and the LIRR stop here). But, to maneuver through the station it helps to have some familiarity of the station, and a tolerance for stairs, of which there are many. There is also the the subway fare. I, for one, will dodge the cars before I pay to cross the street.

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Holiday season, North Flatbush

Now we know what the area around Atlantic Mall is called. (Few refer to it as Times Plaza; the Brooklyn Times-Union paper is long gone.) What I already knew is that the traffic around here, at the convergence of Flatbush, Atlantic, Fourth and Pacific Avenues, scares the bejesus out of me, night or day. The Atlantic Yards construction, if it happens, will mean even more cars. In the meantime, look both ways, not at the bland holiday decorations, and don’t try to beat the dollar vans when you’re crossing the street.

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