Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Capital One's Blacktop Courtyard Ugliest In Carroll Gardens?

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Carroll Gardeners take immense pride in the neighborhood's signature courtyards. They have, after all, given the neighborhood its name.   Most of these front gardens are lovingly planted and bloom from spring to fall.  There are a few, however, that have been totally neglected.  As one reader pointed out to me, one of those is the 'blacktop' yard attached to Capital One at 420 Court Street at the corner of Second Place.  He writes:
To your knowledge, has anyone tried to get Capital One's blacktop garden? It is such a shame that they just do the cheapest, ugliest thing possible with that garden space rather than beautify it. To me it shows a disregard and disrespect for the neighborhood. I kind of doubt that your average Capital One branch in the suburbs doesn't have even the most basic landscaping outside of it.   I did call them a few months ago and spoke to a manager and while the conversation didn't go anywhere (it's up to corporate, no one's ever even suggested that, etc.)Getting them to do something with the garden would be a major win for everyone
To be fair, the yard has looked like this for many years now, even when this was a branch of Home Federal Savings Bank and later, Northfork Bank.
But I agree.  The yard is truly an eye sore and isn't even kept particularly clean.  A few plants would go a long way to making this corner look just a bit nicer.
How about it, Capital One?


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do people use this bank? I have never seen a person in it.

Any efforts to beautify this would be appreciated.

Little Earthquake said...

At least put a basketball hoop there or something....

Anonymous said...

Agree it's ugly, but I don't think you know what a courtyard is.

Katia said...

Carroll Gardens' front yards are often referred to as courtyard.
From http://carrollgardensbrooklyn.org:

"Carroll Gardens is named for the neighborhood's signature setback gardens, which was planned with great foresight by the surveyor Richard Butts in 1846. In that year, a law established the gardens on the four Places between Henry and Smith Streets and deemed the courtyards "shall be built on a line 33 feet 5¼ inches" that "shall be used for courtyards only"."

Trumbull Bully said...

Bully here.

To lose highly visible courtyards, especially on a corner, is a real shame. I doubt this will ever be fully utilized because it will cost the branch money for landscaping and upkeep. At the other end of the block, the courtyard outside of Vinzee's (RIP) is another lost space. Hopefully something will move in there that will use it to its full potential (provided they keep the music volume down, of course).

Anonymous said...

I have always heard the space referred to as "the aryway", spelled areaway in print which I have seen in Landmark Commission documents.