High Line/Night Line

Debate night in America and traffic on the BQE West is brisk. We all just want to hunker down with Paul and Joe. I read in the Daily News a few days ago a proposal for a second High Line reserved for bicyclists. Well why not, if it keeps them away from luckless pedestrians? But how will the take-out delivery guys get their food to the starving masses?

Beacon of Hope?

(Photo courtesy Steel Market Development Inst.)

Intimacy

Conversation near the door of a very crowded Flushing-bound 7 train yesterday afternoon:

Large woman: This train is packed. If you don't like being touched by other people, take a taxi.

Small woman: You take a taxi.

The small woman looks out the window and begins quietly praying, in Spanish.

Amen.

Witch's Hat and All That

Early evening sky off the Staten Island Expressway. Suddenly fall is upon us.  The pumpkin-flavored drinks they're pushing at Starbucks don't seem so ludicrous now.

Mysterious structures on the SI horizon...

(But still seem ludicrous.)

That's the batting cage at Staten Island Gokarts Batting Cages and Mini Gold. At first, I took it for a self-contained driving range or driving cage.

Now I see the error of my ways.

In either case, a site for off-road rage.

...and spooky skies.

Que Rico!

(Photo: Josh Haner, The New York Times)

That's Mitt Romney leaving the La Teresita Cuban restaurant in Tampa yesterday.  Reader, I don't mind telling you I'm scared. Why? First, because he actually looks like a man enjoying what he's doing (even if he also looks a bit like a stalker). Second, because it demonstrates that the Romney campaign can actually evolve: This is the first widely publicized food-related event I can think of that doesn't have Romney in a chain restaurant handing out subs. Could Mitt actually be more than 47% human? And what's in those boxes?

Six Minutes to Antenna King

Miracle Mile

That's right, reader, all lanes on the BQE are open as it heads towards the viaduct over the Gowanus Canal. Two days running it's taken just six minutes from the Atlantic Avenue exit to the on-ramp from Third Avenue around 65th St. in Sunset Park (just before the Antenna King). My beloved local route below the BQE took about 20. Looks like I'll be on the high road once again. But who knows, maybe I'll be in the market for vanilla extract or a used forklift someday!

Tower of Tar

Where does the asphalt for NYC's unrelenting road paving and repair come from? Glad you asked. It's the Hamilton Plant on Hamilton Avenue on the Gowanus Canal and just below the BQE. In fact you can see its gears turning and flag flying from the viaduct over the canal in this photo from early days of the BTB. It's even more impressive when seen from below:

For more on of the inner workings of the plan check out these photos from Daniel Kukla's blog. What you seen in the background of my photo above is the new Marine Transfer Station being constructed for the Sanitation Department. Asphalt and garbage and canal: This is going to be a very fragrant zone.