#17, Willow Place, Brooklyn Heights
And speaking of quiet detours, Brooklyn Heights is full of such places. You never notice how ever-present traffic is until you step away from it and wander down a quiet, tree-lined block like this one on Willow Place, where this sunburst 17 was patiently waiting. Even in a place as full of infinite variety as New York, it's all too easy to get trapped in daily routines. After a time, you enter a kind of cul-de-sac of the mind. You get comfortable. Stuck in your ways. The way people stubbornly stick to the main arteries while driving, cycling, and walking -- what an Irish friend of mine referred to as "grid mentality," perhaps native to New Yorkers and American city-dwellers everywhere -- is so ingrained in us. It's almost as if a one-block place was a road to nowhere. I try to amble down them as often as possible.
And speaking of quiet detours, Brooklyn Heights is full of such places. You never notice how ever-present traffic is until you step away from it and wander down a quiet, tree-lined block like this one on Willow Place, where this sunburst 17 was patiently waiting. Even in a place as full of infinite variety as New York, it's all too easy to get trapped in daily routines. After a time, you enter a kind of cul-de-sac of the mind. You get comfortable. Stuck in your ways. The way people stubbornly stick to the main arteries while driving, cycling, and walking -- what an Irish friend of mine referred to as "grid mentality," perhaps native to New Yorkers and American city-dwellers everywhere -- is so ingrained in us. It's almost as if a one-block place was a road to nowhere. I try to amble down them as often as possible.
6 comments:
I've done some theater on Willow Place with the Heights Players. I may audition for a show there this spring, actually. It's such a beautiful little street-- it put me in a good frame of mind just walking towards the theater each evening. I don't remember that 17! Though now, of course, I'll have to look.
I love this one! And I'm enjoying this blog in general. Cheers!
Thanks, Pete. Glad you're digging it. That is one cool profile picture. You fit in quite casually between the 2-headed ape and the bright red #2.
Jackie, I'll have to look for that theatre on Willow Place. I can't for the life of me picture it. I do know what you mean about the good frame of mind that street inspires. . .
All coolness credit for that pic goes to Ray, the photographer.
Ha! I had a hunch.
You have much more variety than here in Sydney. Although I guess you rove all over.
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