Four friends
came riding down Smith Street
and halted at the red light
at the corner of Union.
There was something
so wonderful and carefree about the moment
and about the combination of
Summer,
vacation,
friendship
and skateboard riding!
came riding down Smith Street
and halted at the red light
at the corner of Union.
There was something
so wonderful and carefree about the moment
and about the combination of
Summer,
vacation,
friendship
and skateboard riding!
For Home Page, click Pardon Me For Asking
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29 comments:
I see these kids having their fun, but then I think about Frank Verderame's vision for Public Place site. A public park and recreation space for the community. Kids don't have enough spaces, places to go and play.
Carefree is not always a good thing .. i have seen these boys and many others like them roam the streets of carroll gardens with their skateboards not looking out for any cars ....kids dont have a enough space to go play? are you serious? these arent small tikes we are talking about! these are kids well in the age of 14-17 not to menation there are many places for them to go such as school yards or a skatepark which they seem to be building alot of ... STAY OUT OF THE STREET! ITS NOT FOR BIKES OR SKATEBOARDS!AND IF YOU ARE GOING TO RIDE A BIKE IN THE STREET PLEASE STAY IN THE BIKE LANE AND RIDE WITH TRAFFIC!!!!! NOT AGAINST IT!
Katia,
These are the same kids that skateboard on the monument in the park and are starting to destroy the marble base. They also skateboard down the steps in front of the parkhouse right into traffic on Smith Street...........
Yeah, they need some place to ride in the neighborhood; they say Bay Ridge is just too far away. Kathleen
Bay Ridge is a great neighborhood, but do we really want to ship our kids off on two trains to get there so they can play on their skateboards? 14-17 years old kids are still kids, and our kids should be able to play in this neighborhood.
Remember that song: "Streets are for cars and buses, not for bikes or balls or toys. Sidewalks, parks, and playgrounds are the places for girls and boys."
I have balled out many kids who ride their skateboards on the World War I monument at the park. Am upset to see what's happening with the marble base. Talked to the kids about how important it is to respect neighborhood kids who weren't much older than them who died for us with the idea that we should a good life, that they should be respectful. Seems like it's the first time anyone talked to them like they were smart enough to understand (which they were). Wonder where their parents have been and how much their parents connect the past, however recent to the present. We do mostly have a very good life indeed.
Healthy neighborhoods, whether in Carroll Gardens, Bay Ridge, or Timbuktu require safe places for kids of all ages to play. When the Gowanus is cleaned up correctly, as I pray it will be, there will be a Frank Verderame park for all kinds of fun things for kids to do, whether they are three, fourteen, or fifty.
natty sounds like a bklyn 'native', i.e. racist. there aren't skateparks around here, where do you expect them to go?
How are you going to call me racist .. i have never said anything that had to do with anyone based on their characteristics as a person, color etc. And yes borned and raised in this neighborhood i feel like their needs to be more of us ... how can u not want ur kids taking to train rides to bayridge but are fine with the fact that they skateboard in the street not looking out for cars? ... and for your information their are 2 skateparks in brooklyn not to mention many others in the city ... http://www.skatecity.com/nyc/where/parks.html#kcdc
which you can find at the website above .. and jill if you dont like bklyn natives like most of you yuppies dont what are you doing living in bklyn
relax natty, you sound like a rent controler
Natty, kids should not have to ride a train in order to have a place to play and hang out. Just this morning I was walking past the school yard on President Street, between Bond and Hoyt - there is a recreation space there. The gates were locked. Four guys, one with a basketball, looked like they just wanted to go and play there. Maybe they were 12-13. I felt bad for them. There should be places for them, there should be sports and recreational activities for them, in our own neighborhood.
Ok margaret if your so concerned because there are "no places to go" why dont you invite them in you house to play? .. in your backyard? .. infront of your stoop? .. these kids need to get out and experience other parts of ny besides the 10-15 blocks of their neighborhood it gives them something to do and look forward to ... what is so wrong with what i am saying? there are many places pretty close by as well such as prospect park .. you people need to stop talking so much about problems that arent even problems and if it makes you so sad why dont you give them a place to go?
and jewish jill over there my lawyer is writing you a letter as we speak ;)
For goodness sakes everyone, it's good to discuss this stuff but please stop the venom that's being spewed about and stop the name calling. This started out with four kids hanging out and playing. I raised two kids and know what it's like to worry about them but have not forgotten what it's like to be a kid.
Healthy communities do need places for kids of all ages to play. That's a given. There are underlying tensions in our neighborhood between people whose families have lived here for several generations, people who have been here for thirty years, and recent arrivals (frequently referred to as yuppie scum). There are many people from all these groups who care very much about our community and actually work to make things better and speak up when needed (thanks Margaret and Jacqueline).
Natty: You started off flaming people and that pushed buttons.
Jill: Please don't make assumptions that just because someone is a Brooklyn native they are a racist, because this is not true.
Racists and fools reside everywhere, but it's better for all of us to try to be better than this. We need to be able to walk down Court Street with open hearts and smiles for whoever we see. Live with love not with hate and distrust. It's up to us to see and live passed assumptions and listen to each other, even when we disagree. This is not being unrealistic, just is how things should be.
Thanks, Anon,
Very well said.
I had no idea that my photo would invite such a heated debate and such
horrendous name calling.
I raised two kids in Carroll Gardens and just a few years ago, my son was on a skateboard, riding down Smith Street, too. That's what many young teens do at that age.
Many of these kids ride the subway by themselves to go to Manhattan ever morning, so that is not the issue. Sending them to a skate park in a different neighborhood would just mask the problem we have here in Carroll Gardens.
We need more recreational space for our kids right here.
Carroll Park is filled to the rafters every day.
I like Margaret's idea to reclaim Public Place as what is was always supposed to be: open space for the public.
Instead of building 700+ units of housing, as the city plans, let's make it into parkland, with a skate park, bicycle path, running track and dog run.
What does everyone think?
SEND THEM DOWN TO THE PROMENADE ... JUST KEEP THEM OUT OF THE STREET ... OR OF COURSE SEND THEM TO MARGARETS SINCE SHE IS SO CONCERNED OVER THE CHILDREN
if you all keep acting like the street is a place to ride your skateboard ... how are you going to feel if one of these days a kid god for bid gets hit by at car? ... whose fault is it the kid is failed to look out for traffic and ran a red light? .. or the drivers?
Have you checked out KaBOOM.org? They can help you build a playground or create a play area. They are a very well-respected national non-profit. May be a great place to start?
natty, what makes you assume that i'm jewish?
anonymous, when was the last time you walked down Court St.? Open hearts & smiles? I've seen neither for a loooooong time--and I've lived in CG for 60 years!
I am on Court Street almost every day with an open heart and try to be nice, not a sour person. Probably is the reason that am regularly greeted with smiles and kindness.
We all have pain and problems in our lives. Feel sorry for the ones in this thread who have been calling each other awful names and being so snippy.
I agree with Margaret and Katia that the Public Place site should become a public park and recreation space. Agree that it's not safe to play in the street. Maybe a new thread can be started that focuses on finding positive solutions.
Anon
Open heart and smiles? kindness walking down court street? what kind of acid are you on? or do we just not walk down the same court st? all i get is blank stares and a dirty look every now and then ... what are you yuppies looking at!?
Natty, judging from the vibes you are exuding here,I'm not surprised you get blank stares and dirty looks when you walk around the neighborhood. You get back what you put out. Nope, not yuppie talk. Just fact of life, and nature.
I'm sorry folks but carroll gardens/bklyn/nyc is not mayberry rfd! I am a native New Yorker and I don't remember anyone back in the day (before the arrival of newbies) smiling at each other all of the time. You would look like a psycho if you did. It does seem that natty is a bit angry but I tend to agree with what he is saying.
oh Margaret you really ruffle my feathers
Maura, the discussion here focused on there being a need for space for community recreation and sports. This is true whether you live in Mayberry or in Brooklyn. It's about community needs. Frank Verderame, r.i.p., was a native Brooklynite who was tied to his community, did a lot for it, and he had Public Place designated as exactly that, a site to be used by the community for sports and recreation. He saw the need and addressed it. This need is still here. I still remember the drawing he had made up of the baseball field that would be part of Public Place. People. Community. And you and natty, just from visiting this blog show your curiosity about the neighborhood, your community. And in writing your comments, it appears you must feel that same need to be part of the voice in this community. Whether we are in Brooklyn, or Mayberry. What's the diff? Absolutely none. Except that here in Brooklyn, we lead such compressed lives in terms of space, open space, green space, nature. Even more reason why we need Public Place to be a realization of Frank's vision. On the books, that's still what it is there for, too!
Hey Margaret, the city IS compressed! Why would you expect people to act like a country bumpkin? Back in the day, there would be 4 families residing in a 4 family bldg, with each family having (on average) 3 children! There were a lot more people running around Carroll Gardens then with better manners than these 'better educated' yupsters. You want green? Go to prospect park!
Yes, Prospect Park is great. And so will Frank Verderame Public Place site be. And you will enjoy it as much as I. All of Brooklyn can't hang out in Prospect Park all the time, after all! Why all this hateful resentful antagonistic response to a beautiful needed vision? And all this yupster vs born here. Even born here has roots that are not from here, so that attitude is vapid.
There are people living here with their roots going back over 100 years! if thats not native what the hell is?
i totally agree with natty, yupsters have such an attitude! show some respect! what's wrong the old ways (the right way).
All the attitude and non-respect I have seen here in this discussion is not coming from anyone saying s/he is a yupster. What's with this sense of entitlement natty and 2:37? Please don't answer - though I know you will, and you will gladly get the last word as far as my interest in where you want to take this.
you all will be dead by the time they build this frank verderame's public park u speak of
That is where you are wrong 3:47, it is the yupsters with the sense of entitlement AND needing to have the last word. I have lived here in CG all of my 60 years--there where quite a few characters back in the old days but we ALL respected each other. I try to smile and say hello while I'm out and about but I generally get looked at as if I'm wearing a clown suit or something! I think most of these suburban refugees just don't know how to act in the city.
There are a lot of ways to divide people: us vs them. Race, gender, class, sexual orientation, nationality, language, religion...and Newcomers vs old-timers is also one of them. But you have to beware of generalizations - these people are always good, those are always bad. Frank Verderame is the person who had this vision for Public Place site. He was an old timer, established in this neighborhood. He had this vision. Not the yupsters. And his vision was all-inclusive. Frank Verderame Public Place site was meant to to be for EVERYBODY.
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