Sticker Shock

The iconography of the shield? BQE Road Warrior. Or Knight Errant.

I don't where he got it, but I want one.

Linc-C Out

In a surprise to almost no one, Lincoln Chafee has decided to quit the race for the Democratic nomination for president. The Daily News headline sums it up pretty well.

If he's looking for a silver lining, Linc can take some comfort that he gets to share the page with Beyoncé and Jay Z.

Read the online News story here. Without the wonderful, woeful headline in the print edition.

Boulevardier

Making the early start for S.I., I decided to take the back route to the BQE, through Sunnyside, Long Island City, and Greenpoint, what I call the soft route via Dublin. Missed the Kosciuszko korek (Polish for "cork," or traffic jam).

Still slow getting on at McGuinness Boulevard, but gave me a chance to appreciate expressway-side living.

Non-Reliance

A good name for an auto repair shop, and a good location too, you would think. Targee Street, Staten Island.

Moby Grape Moving

The pink is the first thing to catch your eye. Then the absence of any company name or logo. Just a phone number.

You look closer at the numbers. Something funky about that font. Check out that 0. Call it San Francisco Sound. Prime example: Moby Grape's 1968 Grape Jam LP cover.

It turns out the van belongs to Ideal Moving, which has only been around since 1994. I guess they had to settle for Pearl Jam.

Shadows on the Newtown

Looking east from the Kosciuszko Bridge. What will the view from the new bridge be like?

BQE Open

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a brand new tennis ball along the lefthand margin of the westbound BQE, just as it dips to go under the Brooklyn Bridge. And then another, and another, and another... They seem to have been dumped and rolled down along the edge of the highway. Art project or frustrated tennis player?

The balls are still there, though no longer new. A few have been run over and jammed into the openings of the rectangular drain covers. This one seems safe from that fate, at least for the moment.

Bridge Update

The long delayed Kosciuszko Bridge replacement project is well underway. The towers for the eastbound bridge (above) already dwarf our beloved but outdated bridgelet. And the roadway on the Queens side is being laid (below). If the project stays on schedule, this Queensbound span will open in early 2017, followed by the (sob) removal of the existing bridge later that year.

You can read all this and much more in September Project Update newsletter on the NYS DOT site. I was pleased that the newsletter is available in Polish as well as English and Spanish, a nod to the Greenpoint community and also to the General.

Umbrellas of Bogotá

Most days I've spent in Bogotá begin cloudy but break open at some point into cool, dry sunshine. It wasn't clear at all whether the umbrellas this guy was selling on the median of a Bogotá avenue were for sun or rain. Or both.