Greenpoint, October, 2015

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Exit Be the BQE

The BQE, glimpsed across the New York harbor from the Staten Island ferry. Feels distant, in time as well as space. The replacement span of the new Kosciuszko Bridge has opened, and I haven't even driven across it. The old bridge, with its spectacular slow-motion views of Manhattan, will be dismantled piece by piece--not, as rumored, dynamited in one spectacular farewell show. At some point, work will (must? may?) begin on the "layer cake" of lanes under the Brooklyn Heights promenade. I will mostly, and gratefully, experience that as a spectator.

Be the BQE has taken more than a few detours and diversions and breaks since its first post in April 2011 (two years after Lawrence Weiner's At the same moment above). Now seems as good a time as any to call it a day. The boys in Research Bureau have moved on to other projects. Getting a line on Staten Island looks like a full-time job, and then some.
Thanks to all regular readers, and all visitors to the page, whether they meant to stop in or not. Watch out for the lane drops!