September 14th, 2003
I did the final Soundwalk this morning: Dumbo. The less said about it, the better. It was sad to walk by ‘Between the Bridges’, which granted has fallen off a lot this last year, but doesn’t deserve to get ripped down. It was a favorite place for a lot of my friends for a while and where Jeremy had his 27th birthday.
The one interesting factoid I picked up was that the the guy who lives in this fantasy apartment is the original re-devloper of Dumbo. After making a mint gentrifiying Soho in the sixities, he came here in ‘78 and bought up everything. It was almost reassuring to know some broker doesn’t live in that apartment.
Afterwards, I wandered around downtown Brooklyn and to my amazment discovered the Transit Museum had re-opened!
I think this was one of the first days and it was full of MTA workers and their families talking about these old trains.
It was shocking to see how much smaller and homlier everything used to be…
Some of the really older trains (1915-1920) had these practically wicker sofas inside. I think people must have been thinner cause they had the original turnstile and it was way too small for people these days.
This control panel was for an old draw bridge. Oh, I wish I had this in my house!
Outside there were buses used by the city through the years (all in mint condition, like the trains inside!). The older buses also seemed REALLY small as well.
Also: If you’re able to get to Central Park tomorrow night, check out Light Cycle by Cai Guo-Qiang . If this terrible photoshop image is any indication, it should be memorable.
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