5/17 shots

NW Corner of Driggs Street and Manhattan Avenue, 

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Brooklyn was always the cool borough in New York City, but lately the influx of money, coupled with so much real-estate being turned over in hopes of much larger profits has been shocking. This particular corner is one of the best examples of the gentrification in Williamsburg. On one corner a brick building with peeling paint holds a sign that appears to be older than the average age of the neighborhood population. Around noon, the establishment is full of patrons eating and drinking out in front. By night at the northeast corner, people chat with cigarettes in hand while their drinks grow less robust inside. And of course, at the southeast corner, people watch it all from their new apartment's floor to ceiling windows. Once again, the coolness of a neighborhood is attempting to bring in people who pay to be cool, and yet rather than living in such a lifestyle, they seclude themselves in private fortresses.

SE Corner of Driggs Street and Manhattan Avenue, 

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

It was getting past late, and on to early, in other words, it was morning. I hadn't realized until I stopped at my favorite pick-up dinner, that the sun had already been progressing upwards in the sky. Everybody had gone home already for the most part, but I lucked out and got a fare all the way to Far Rockaway, Queens, or somewhere in the area. 

When you get this far out to the limits of New York's borders, things start changing, and it doesn't look like the New York so many are familiar with. The Rockaways are a set of neighborhoods on a finger peninsula, on one side of the peninsula, the lower New York Bay, pretty much the Atlantic Ocean. On the other side is the smaller Jamaica Bay, where I have visited a bunch of times to look at wildlife.  

Averne, Queens

A smooth dark freshly paved road surrounded by new, I'm assuming affordable, houses. Seemingly miles from civilization, but not a mile away, the elevated subway line:

Averne, Queens

However, it wasn't running that day, the subway doesn't always run as predicted here.

Averne, Queens

On either end of the main road, the salt water is only steps away, and the breeze is strong. The Housing, affordable, due to the inconvenience of travel.

Holland, Queens

Broad Channel is a small patch of houses on stilts in between the Rockaways and Howard Beach. A lot of fishing here. 

Broad Channel, Queens

Cross Bay Bridge, Jamaica Bay, Queens

Starbucks, Howard Beach, Queens

This Starbucks Coffee house may look common to you, but for this New Yorker, to see a Starbucks in its own suburban house with parking on either side is super rare. So with such easy parking I had to stop, go to the restroom of course, and then order the smallest coffee I could.

South Conduit Boulevard, Ozone Park, Queens

Yes folks, still making my way back to Manhattan, and not a building in sight.

Van Wyck Expressway,  Jamaica, Queens

So the lack of train service to the Rockaways, meant at least one person's route to JFK Airport was derailed. This is what he told me when he got in my cab at Columbus Circle, so I got a quick trip to JFK, thanks to the unreliable Metropolitan Transit Authority. In all truth, the subway system is way better than it was, but there is always room for improvement. Above the Van Wyck is a monorail designed to transfer from both the 'A' line, and the 'E' line and bring people to the airport for a fee of another 3 bucks I think. The problem with this, is that people going to the airport would much rather a direct transit, without any transfers. 

Midtown