The Years Have Been Kind

This Spring has been a season of garden anniversaries for me. Six years ago, my partner and I bought our home in Flatbush. In the first month after closing, I began weeding, composting, and envisioning the gardens. Five years ago, I started this blog to document what I was doing and record my explorations.

It's also been a season to celebrate the gardens. Last month, for New York City Wildflower Week (NYCWW), I opened my native plant garden for a garden tour for the first time. This Sunday, June 12, the gardens will be opened again, this time for the Victorian Flatbush House Tour, to benefit the Flatbush Development Corporation (FDC). And in May, I registered my garden as a Certified Wildlife Habitat (#141,173) with the National Wildlife Federation.

My original vision for the backyard native plant garden is largely realized. I'm close to completing development of the planting beds. The shrubs and perennials have grown and spread; there is little bare ground. Unlike me, the garden looks better than it did six years ago. Take a look, and let me know what you think.

Slideshow

By view of the garden

Local Leafin': Street Tree Walking Tour Sunday 10/24

Japanese Maple leaves (red), with Linden in the background (yellow), at the corner of Rugby Road and Cortelyou Road in Beverley Square West, Flatbush, Brooklyn, November 2007.


The Sustainable Flatbush Fall 2010 Street Tree Walking Tour will be this Sunday, October 24. Tours begin at 11am and 12noon. I'm proud to once again be one of your guides. Your other guide will be Sam Bishop, Director of Education of Trees NY. As in the past, tours will start at Sacred Vibes Apothecary, our other community partner. This is also listed as a NeighborWoods Month event.

After a dry summer, October brought ample rains just in time to salvage some fall foliage. Dogwoods, Locusts, and Ash Trees are showing strong color. The neighborhood should be at near-peak foliage conditions for the year for the tour.

On the tour, you can see:

• Acer platanoides, Norway Maple
• Aesculus hippocastanum, Horsechestnut
• Amelanchier, Serviceberry
• Betula nigra, River Birch
• Cercis canadensis, Redbud
• Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood
• Cryptomeria japonica, Japanese Red Cedar
• Fraxinus americana, White Ash
• Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo
• Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust
• Liquidambar styraciflua, Sweetgum
• Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Dawn Redwood
• Pinus strobus, White Pine
• Platanus x acerifolia, London Plane
• Pyrus calleryana, Flowering Pear, Callery Pear
• Quercus palustris, Pin Oak
• Quercus robur 'Fastigiata', Columnar English Oak
• Sophora japonica, Japanese Pagoda Tree, Scholar Tree
• Tsuga canadensis, Eastern Hemlock
• Ulmus americana, American Elm

... and many more.

Map

Not just for Tree-Huggers: Street Tree Tour Sunday, 5/2

RESCHEDULED: The Tree Tour has been rescheduled for the rain date of Sunday, May 2, same times and location.

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340 Argyle Road, Beverley Square West, April 2007


Sustainable Flatbush's 3rd Annual Spring Street Tree Walking Tour will be Sunday, May 2. I'm proud to once again be one of your guides.

Sustainable Flatbush Street Tree Walking Tour, Arbor Day 2009. That's me in the middle, next to the tree. Photo by Keka (Flickr)


Tours start at 11am and 12noon from Sacred Vibes Apothecary, 376 Argyle Road, between Cortelyou & Dorchester Roads, and loop through the historic neighborhoods of Beverley Square West and landmarked Prospect Park South. In addition to architectural beauty, the area boasts a rich variety of street trees, as well as ornamental trees and shrubs.


View Sustainable Flatbush Spring 2010 Street Tree Walking Tour in a larger map

On the tour, you can see:

• Acer platanoides, Norway Maple
• Aesculus hippocastanum, Horsechestnut
• Amelanchier, Serviceberry
• Betula nigra, River Birch
• Cercis canadensis, Redbud
• Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood
• Cryptomeria japonica, Japanese Red Cedar
• Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo
• Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust
• Liquidambar styraciflua, Sweetgum
• Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Dawn Redwood
• Pinus strobus, White Pine
• Platanus x acerifolia, London Plane
• Pyrus calleryana, Flowering Pear, Callery Pear
• Quercus palustris, Pin Oak
• Quercus robur 'Fastigiata', Columnar English Oak
• Sophora japonica, Japanese Pagoda Tree, Scholar Tree
• Tsuga canadensis, Eastern Hemlock
• Ulmus americana, American Elm

... and many more.

The suggested donation for the tour is $5. From the Sustainable Flatbush Web site:

Spring Cleaning on Cortelyou Road

The daffodils are pushing up along Cortelyou Road and they would be so much prettier if they don't bloom in the midst of garbage! Join Sustainable Flatbush and your neighbors from the Beverley Square West Association to help clean up the tree beds.

When: Sunday, March 21st
Where: Meet up at 10am in front of the Library, near the Greenmarket tent, at the corner of Argyle and Cortelyou Roads.
If you miss the meet-up, look for us along Cortelyou Road between Coney Island Avenue and East 16th Street.

Bring gloves and rakes if you have them; we will also have some to share. Children are welcome to join us!

Holiday Lights 2009

A slideshow of houses in my neighborhood.

It Begins

Update, 2009-12-26: Holiday Lights 2009

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The Wizard of Slocum Place does it again, with help from his next-door neighbor.



For best effect, view this photo on a black background.

I took this snapshot last night with my little Nikon P&S while walking home from dinner at Mimi's Hummus on Cortelyou Road with Blog Widow. Tonight's snow will create an ideal wintery photo-op.

Prospect Park South Halloween Parade 2009

Slideshow

Saturday, October 24: Meet the Trees

Fraxinus americana, White Ash, one of the street trees that will be on the tour.


On Saturday, October 24, Sustainable Flatbush will host its first Fall Street Tree Walking Tour. And I'm looking forward to once again be one of the guides for the tour.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brooklyn, NY October 16, 2009

SUSTAINABLE FLATBUSH FALL 2009 STREET TREE WALKING TOUR
Saturday, October 24, 2009—Rain or Shine

Based on the success of the annual walking tour events in celebration of Arbor Day and spring in bloom, Sustainable Flatbush is now introducing the inaugural Fall Street Tree Walking Tour. The tour guides will be Tracey Hohman, professional gardener, and Chris Kreussling, aka Flatbush Gardener, both neighborhood residents.

Save the Campus Road Garden in Flatbush

Update, 2009-10-09: The Daily News has picked up the story, a few days after it's been in the Brooklyn Blogosphere.

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Campus Road Garden, South Midwood, Flatbush, Brooklyn, August 2008


The fate of the Baltic Street Garden in Park Slope was, unfortunately, sealed months ago. And now Flatbush' 14-year old Campus Road Garden is threatened by Brooklyn College's plans to build a parking lot in its place.


View Brooklyn Community Gardens in a larger map

The garden has a [long] history and a lot of love, sweat and passion went into creating the garden and sustaining it through the years.

The college has made beautiful new additions to the campus: building, walkways, etc.

However, the garden, which lies at the foot of the athletic field, is going to be bulldozed to make room for a small parking lot.

As you can imagine we are all saddened by this. Each member joined for their own reasons, but the bottom line is, we all come together as a community and we cherish the friendships we have made with fellow gardeners, the Brooklyn College community and, of course, the neighborhood.
- Letter from the author of Snowballs and Candy Corn

Here's how you can help.

1. Sign the online petition: Stop the Demolition of the Campus Road Garden. (You'll be prompted to contribute through PayPal, but you can ignore that.)
2. On Facebook, join the group Stop the Demolition of Campus Road Garden! to stay informed.
   

Flatbush Tree Tour, Saturday, April 25

2009.04.23 IMPORTANT TRANSIT SERVICE ADVISORY: The Manhattan-bound Q train will only stop at Church Avenue between Kings Highway and Prospect Park this weekend. Coney Island bound trains will make all stops.

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Argyle Road in my neighborhood of Beverley Square West in Flatbush, Brooklyn, one of the blocks that will be on Saturday's tour.


This Saturday, April 25, join Sustainable Flatbush in our second year of celebrating Arbor Day and the magnificent street trees of Brooklyn's Victorian Flatbush. The Sustainable Flatbush Arbor Day 2009 Street Tree Walking Tour reprises last year's route, visiting the Victorian Flatbush neighborhoods of Beverley Square West and Prospect Park South.

Tours will depart at 11am and 12noon from Third Root Community Health Center at 380 Marlborough Road, just south of Cortelyou Road. [GMAP] Take the Q train to Cortelyou Road and walk one block west (left) to Marlborough Road after exiting the station.


View Sustainable Flatbush Arbor Day 2009 Street Tree Walking Tour in a larger map

Your tour guides will be my neighbor, Tracey Hohman, a professional gardener, and yours truly. Throughout the tour, we will:

• identify trees and their characteristics
• share interesting facts
• explore local tree history
• discuss the many ways street trees benefit the environment
• explain how to obtain and care for street trees
• and more

This FREE tour is a little over a mile in length and lasts approximately 90 minutes. Tours will take place rain or shine. Please gear appropriately for the weather and walk: sunscreen, comfortable walking shoes, water, and so on.

The area boasts a rich variety of both street trees and ornamental trees and shrubs. On the tour, you will see:

• Acer platanoides, Norway Maple
  
• Aesculus hippocastanum, Horsechestnut
  
• Amelancier, Serviceberry
  
• Betula nigra, River Birch
  
• Cercis canadensis, Redbud
  
• Cornus florida, Flowering Dogwood
  
• Cryptomeria japonica, Japanese Red Cedar
  
• Ginkgo biloba, Ginkgo
  
• Gleditsia triacanthos, Honey Locust
  
• Liquidambar styraciflua, Sweetgum
  
• Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Dawn Redwood
  
• Pinus strobus, White Pine
  
• Platanus x acerifolia, London Plane
  
• Pyrus calleryana, Flowering Pear, Callery Pear
  
• Quercus palustris, Pin Oak
  
• Quercus robur 'Fastigiata', Columnar English Oak
  
• Sophora japonica, Japanese Pagoda Tree, Scholar Tree
  
• Tsuga canadensis, Eastern Hemlock
  
• Ulmus americana, American Elm
  
• ... and many more
  

For more information about the tour, please email garden AT sustainableflatbush DOT org.

Sustainable Flatbush brings neighbors together to discuss, educate, and advocate for sustainable living in our Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond.



[bit.ly]

Related Content

Arbor Day posts

Links

Sustainable Flatbush

Resources

Web

To request a free street tree, fill out the form at http://www.nyc.gov/freetree

Million Trees NYC
Trees New York

Online Tree ID Guide, Arbor Day Foundation

Books

Dirr, Michael A. Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Timber Press. ISBN-13: 9780881924046

Victorian Flatbush House Tour

2008.02.13 IMPORTANT UPDATE: The date for this year's tour will be Sunday, June 14, the second Sunday in June, and not June 7 as originally reported.

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This year's Victorian Flatbush House Tour is scheduled for June 14, 2009, the second Sunday in June. If it follows the schedule of past years, the tour will run from 1-6pm.



Unfortunately for me, that means it will conflict with the Brownstone Brooklyn Garden Tour, like it did last year.

Don't miss the architectural awesomeness of these neighborhoods, which boast a diversity of architectural styles and house types.

Related Content

2007 Victorian Flatbush House Tour

Links

Victorian Flatbush House Tour, Flatbush Development Corporation

Bloomberg <3 Flatbush

Part of the front garden and porch of one of my neighbors, one of hundreds of properties threatened by inappropriate zoning in Victorian Flatbush in Brooklyn.


NYC Mayor Bloomberg delivered his state of the city this afternoon from Brooklyn College at Brooklyn Junction:

... here in Flatbush, we’ll re-zone the area not only to create more affordable housing but also to protect its distinct Victorian charm. Brooklyn may have lost the Dodgers, but we’ll make sure its neighborhoods never lose their character.
- Prepared remarks [PDF]

Kinda jumped the gun on the much-anticipated Flatbush Rezoning Plan from Department of City Planning, which is not expected to be certified by the City Planning Commission until the beginning of February, kicking off the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) clock for the rezoning.

Related Content

New Flatbush Rezoning Proposal Gets It Right, 2008-10-07

Links

Bloomberg: Rezone Flatbush, Build Green, Disband LMDC, Observer, 2009-01-15
Bloomberg and the State of the City, City Room, NY Times, 2009-01-15

Happy Holidays

The MTA thwarted our plans to attend a concert of a women's choir this evening. So Blog Widow and I turned back and walked around our neighborhood, taking in the snow-beings and holiday lights.

Enjoy this slideshow of my Flickr set of photos from the evening. For best viewing, click the play button, then click the icon with four arrows in the lower-right to view it full-screen on a black background.

Related Content

Flickr set

"Ditmas Park" in LifeStyler: So Wrong ...

North side of Dorchester Road between Rugby and Marlborough Roads, Ditmas Park West (not "Ditmas Park")


In their Neighborhood Watch feature today, LifeStyler - "offering tips to young adults in order to promote financial responsibility and fiscally responsible lifestyle choices" - interviews neighbors Ben and Liena of the Ditmas Park Blog:

We turn our attentions to Ditmas Park, one of the three Flatbush historic districts that feature beautiful Victorian houses and a low-key, family-friendly vibe. We spoke with Ben and Liena of Ditmas Park Blog for their takes on one of Brooklyn’s best-kept secrets, and how it is also in a state of change.
- Neighborhood Watch: Ditmas Park, Jeffrey L. Wilson, LifeStyler, 2008-10-22

Are we really such a secret, anymore? Victorian Flatbush was featured in This Old House, for the gods' sakes, over the summer as the best place in the U.S. to buy an old house in an urban area.

Since they make a point about "historic districts" - which, in NYC, means landmarked and protected by law - I have no qualms about being a stickler for geography. Presumably, the three historic districts they refer to are:

• Ditmas Park
  
• Prospect Park South
  
• Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park, which is one district comprising two adjacent neighborhoods.
  

Unfortunately, LifeStyler chose to illustrate the interview with photos mostly from Ditmas Park West, which is lovely, but not landmarked, and is not part of Ditmas Park. They lifted all the photos from Flickr. They used three of my photos in violation of all three terms of my Creative Commons license:

• non-commercial use (they have ads on their site)
• non-derivative (they cropped the photos to fit their page layout)
• attributed (they only provide my handle on two of the photos, and only one of them is linked to my Flickr site or blog)

Only one of my three photos is from Ditmas Park: a photo of a vegetable stand on Newkirk Avenue.

Kim's Market, 1521 Newkirk Avenue, Ditmas Park, Flatbush, Brooklyn


I have no time to investigate, but I suspect the other photographers licenses were violated as well. For the record, they are:

• Flickr: aimelaine
  
• Annie Bowerman (Flickr: anniebee)
  
• Clyde Adams III (Flickr: clydesan)
  
• Dave Cook, Eating in Translation
  
• Mike Sheehan (Flickr: finstr)
  
• Flickr: red penny
  

I'm not providing any links to LifeStyler's Web site. Why should I? They didn't link to any of their folks whose creative content they ripped off.

A recent history of Cortelyou Road

Cortelyou Road, North side, looking East from Westminster Road, September 2006, before the new streetscape was put in place in Spring of 2007.


Neighbor, friend, and local real estate agent Jan Rosenberg writes of changes in our neighborhood in the online journal NewGeography:

Twenty some years ago my husband, 2 young sons and I moved from our cramped 16-foot wide attached row house in Brooklyn’s trendy Park Slope to a free-standing, 7-bedroom Victorian house in the Ditmas Park section of Flatbush with stained glass windows, pocket doors, original wood paneling, a back yard, front porch, driveway and 2-car garage in a little-known, tree-lined neighborhood about 10 minutes away – on the other, high-crime side of Prospect Park.
- Gentrification from the inside out in Brooklyn's Ditmas Park

I know everyone's tired of hearing it from me, but this is not Ditmas Park. It's Beverley Square West and Ditmas Park West. Or Victorian Flatbush. Or just plain Flatbush. I suspect the editors provided the title, not Jan.

We're newcomers to the neighborhood. We've only been here since the Spring of 2005. Most of our neighbors have been here much longer than that, even longer than Jan's "twenty some" years. Jan summarizes what we hear from the "old-timers:" not so long ago, moving to this neighborhood was a pioneering act:

When crime exploded in the 1960s and welfare tenants were moved into some of the apartments, much of the middle class – white and black – fled. By the early 1990s many assumed that nothing could be done about the collapse of the quality of life. It wasn’t unusual for police officers in that era, many of whom lived in suburban Suffolk County, to respond to crime victims condescendingly by asking, “What do you expect if you live in a neighborhood like this?”

Little changed even after the extraordinary Giuliani/Bratton efforts brought down crime, little changed in the mid-1990s. The district’s once thriving shopping street, Cortelyou Road , still had no bank, no coffee shop, no diner, no sit-down restaurant, no children's store, no real estate office.

The "from the inside out" part describes the efforts by Jan and other long-time residents to build community through a variety of means. Jan focussed her efforts on the 7 blocks of Cortelyou Road, from Coney Island Avenue to East 17th Street, that are zoned to allow commercial use. She credits other neighbors, as well, with transforming Cortelyou Road into our Main Street:

One incredible woman, Susan Siegel, decided she wanted to bring a farmers market to the neighborhood. She worked on this full time, and a year later it opened! Some Cortelyou grocers objected to having it on their strip; a few vocal homeowners objected to unlocking a public school yard and using it to house the market. Ironically the fight over the market swelled into a local “pro-development” movement, made up of people alive to the new possibilities, and sparked a neighborhood newsletter.

Once it opened in 2002, the Farmers Market became an informal community center, a literal common ground, for our neighborhood. The Market became a place where the full range of neighborhood residents could come together to buy fresh fruits and vegetables and to catch up on what’s happening in the schools, the playgrounds, and stores including a highly successful organic food co-op. Until then, only the homeowners were organized but now new co-op owners, home owners, and renters all came, mingling freely with each other, and with “veterans”, in a way that had not previously been the case.

Red Jacket Orchards, Greenmarket, Cortelyou Road, July 2007


Although Jan doesn't mention it in her article, the transformation of the Cortelyou Road streetscape resulted from many years of organizing and planning from several different sources, including the Flatbush Development Corporation (FDC). FDC has been active since arson for insurance fraud was a serious concern for the neighborhood, unthinkable today, when the same homes that might have been torched 20 years ago are going for over $1 million. FDC sponsors the annual Flatbush Frolic, which takes place on Cortelyou Road, and has been running for 31 years.

Cobblestones, Cortelyou Road, South side, West of Stratford Road, march 2007. That's Coney Island Avenue in the background.


The new clock at night, in April 2008, shortly after it was installed this Spring, on the grounds of P.S. 139 at the corner of Rugby Road.


Even before we moved into the neighborhood, James Heaton's Flatbush Residents Email Network Database - FREND - served as an introduction to the cultural landscape and issues of the neighborhood we were adopting.

Jim Heaton, a local advertising executive initiated an online newsletter, FREND, [which] served to “connect” nearly a thousand people and families to the new initiatives, particularly around the Farmers Market and crime ...

The successor to FREND is The Flatbush Family Network, started by two other neighbors:

The on-line contribution really blossomed in 2003 when Ellen Moncure and Joe Wong revived the Flatbush Family Network (FFN) . This site has become an invaluable source of neighborhood and childrearing information for the many young families who live here. For many people moving into this neighborhood, FFN provides an initial introduction and orientation to life in this neighborhood. For those who live here, it’s a convenient, ongoing source of information and support.

Related Content

Cortelyou Road Park, Park(ing) Day NYC 2008, September 2008
The Daffodil Project is in bloom on Cortelyou Road, April 2008
Cortelyou Road (Flickr Collection)

Links

Gentrification from the inside out in Brooklyn's Ditmas Park, NewGeography
Changing Ditmas Park, Ditmas Park Blog
Race, Class and Gentrification in Ditmas Park, Brownstoner

New Flatbush Rezoning Proposal Gets It Right

Update, 2009-07-29: Flatbush Rezoning Proposal approved by City Council

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477 Westminster Road, Ditmas Park West, one of hundreds of homes that will receive more protection with DCP's revised draft


NYC's Department of City Planning (DCP) provided the first view of their revised draft of the Flatbush Rezoning Proposal to Brooklyn's Community Board 14 (CB14) on September 3, and more recently to the CB14 Executive Committee on September 18. I wasn't able to sit in on any of the meetings, but I've spoken with folks who've seen the new proposal first hand.

The revised draft is covered in Flatbush Life, including a photo of the redrafted map:

After a presentation to the executive committee of Community Board 14 – which greeted the plan warmly – the Department of City Planning (DCP) is moving forward to certify the proposal, which will launch the formal approval process for the rezoning.

During the meeting, which was held in the board office, 810 East 16th Street, DCP received accolades from board members and area residents for reworking the plan to take into account neighborhood concerns.

- Flatbush rezoning moving forward

I wrote a detailed report about the earlier draft that DCP presented to CB14 and at a public hearing back in June. From everything I've heard and seen about this second draft, they got it right. In general, lots that are 50x100 feet will get the R3X designation, while lots that are 40x100 will get R4A. This is a more tailored approach than the broad brush of R4A that was painted over Ditmas Park West and South Midwood in the first draft. (See my original post for complete details on these zoning designations.)

They really listened to the concerns of residents, went back and re-drafted to address them. The free-standing homes responsible for the physical character of this area of Flatbush will be protected. All of Flatbush will be protected against unlimited height residential development. There are new opportunities for commercial development, and incentives for affordable housing. It's hard to find something to critique in this draft.

Related Posts

Flatbush Rezoning Proposal will define the future of Victorian Flatbush, 2008-06-13

Links

Flatbush rezoning moving forward, Flatbush Life, 2008-09-28
Rezonings for Flatbush, Canarsie Move Forward, Campaign for Community-Based Planning, 2008-10-06
Flatbush Rezoning Moving Forward, Ditmas Park Blog, 2008-10-07

Sycamore

Potted plants and gardening tchotkes on display at Sycamore


Not the tree, but a new flower shop/bar that opened last week around the corner from me. During the day, it will operate as a flower shop, evenings, as a bar. This new venture from the owners of The Farm on Adderley, Gary Jonas and Allison McDowell, replaces Cortelyou Vintage at 1118 Cortelyou Road in my neighborhood of Flatbush.

When the street front was renovated, they discovered the original stained and leaded glass lights of the store windows. They had been painted over, but were in otherwise good condition; they were restored with lots of cleaning, plus some replacements and repairs. The flower shop occupies just the front of the space, visible from the street.

Storefront, Sycamore, 1118 Cortelyou Road












The bar occupies the rest of the space.





The garden theme continues to the shelves behind the bar.



A backyard deck extends the space to the outdoors, likely to the dismay of the neighbors.



A wall of Boston Ivy, Parthenocissus tricuspidata


Every new business on Cortelyou Road is examined under the collective microscope of the community, sometimes on blogs, but mostly on email discussion groups and in casual conversation. This block of Cortelyou, in particular, has seen a lot of change in the 3-1/2 years I've lived in the neighborhood. As in other neighborhoods of Brooklyn, change highlights tensions between "old" and "new" Flatbush, especially around the issues of economic sustainability and neighborhood and cultural stability. With specialty roses at $2 a stem, not to mention beers at up to $8 and $10, Sycamore will amplify those concerns.

That said, this is, at least, a neighborhood enterprise. Gary and Allison live just two blocks away in Flatbush. The architect, Ole Sondresen, who also designed The Farm on Adderley, is also a neighbor of mine. They are investing their energy and creativity into the neighborhood where they live. That, I think, is a good thing.

Related Content

Flickr photo set
Cortelyou Road

Links

Ole Sondresen
Flatbush Vegan
Ditmas Park Blog
Brooklyn Paper

One Year Ago

Trees snapped in half on Marlborough Road at Albemarle Road, Prospect Park South, on August 8, 2007. This area incurred the most dramatic damage in Flatbush, with scores of trees downed on the street and private property.


The Brooklyn Tornado of 2007 struck one year ago today.

1510 Albemarle Road

I featured this house in Conservatory Envy in September 2006. I took this shot in November 2006.


The tree on the right was a casualty of the tornado.


Here's how it looked from across the street in November 2006.


And after the tornado.

Related Content

Tornado Damage in Prospect Park South, Caton Park and Beverley Square West, August 8, 2007
Tornado Damage, Victorian Flatbush, August 8, 2007 (Flickr photo set)

Flatbush by rail with Francis Morrone

Writing in today's New York Sun, Francis Morrone extols the charm - yes, charm - of the B/Q subway line that runs through the heart of Victorian Flatbush:

Two things bring charm to the line. One is that many of the original subdivisions of early 20th-century Flatbush remain intact. These planned communities are picture-perfect railroad suburbs of riotously eclectic bungalows and mansions on tree-shaded streets, many with brilliant design flourishes such as landscaped medians, or the illusion of spaciousness that comes from planting trees at the house line rather than the curbline. It's fair to say that for cleverness of planning and quality of architecture, these communities rank among the finest of their kind in America.
- Savoring the Brighton Line, a Rare MTA Charmer, Francis Morrone, The New York Sun, July 10, 2008

This is the landmarked Avenue H subway station on the Q line in Flatbush, Brooklyn. It was originally a sales office for Thomas Benton Ackerson's real estate developments in the area. Ackerson is one the developers responsible for my neighborhood of Beverley Square West in Victorian Flatbush. This is the only wooden station house in the New York City subway system.


Morrone briefly samples the neighborhoods of Prospect Park South, Ditmas Park, and Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park. He's written much about the architecture of this area. But today, his focus is the ride itself:

This would not be evident to riders but for the other thing that makes the line so delicious: From Prospect Park to Coney Island, the trains run entirely out of doors. From Prospect Park to Avenue H, the trains run in an open cut. From Avenue H to Sheepshead Bay, the trains run on an embankment. From Sheepshead Bay to Coney Island, the trains are elevated. The stations have the air of country railroad depots.

The Q train's Beverly Road subway platform


Morrone doesn't say much about the architecture in this article, but he does highlight one house in Ditmas Park:

Look for 463 E. 19th St., at the end of the block at Ditmas Avenue. The 1906 Colonial Revival beauty was designed by the great Brooklyn architects Slee & Bryson and has a rounded, jutting front porch with the most beautifully turned wooden balusters you'll ever see.

463 East 19th Street, Ditmas Park, Flatbush, Brooklyn

Related Posts

• Forgotten Flatbush: The Albemarle Road Pedestrian Bridge, November 25, 2007
  

Links

• Savoring the Brighton Line, a Rare MTA Charmer, Francis Morrone, The New York Sun, July 10, 2008
  
• John Petit's Visionary Home Designs, Francis Morrone, New York Sun, October 20, 2006
  
• Generations of Dynamism in Flatbush, Francis Morrone, New York Sun, October 13, 2006
• The Little Station in the Woods tells the whole story of the Avenue H Station House.
  

Cortelyou Greenmarket Update: Raffle and more farmers

From Stacey McCarthy, market manager:

This Sunday, July 6, at the Cortelyou Road Farmers Market, come by the information table to enter the FREE RAFFLE of Greenmarket goodies donated by our market's farmers. Presented in a stylish Greenmarket tote bag, the raffle items will be available to pick up next Sunday, July 13.

This week promises to be a full house with the arrival of VICTOR PAVIA of El Mirador Farms. Victor tells me he will have a good selection of lettuce, herbs, summer squash and SQUASH BLOSSOMS. Victor, like Jorge Carmona of Amantai Farms, is part of the New Farmer Development Program, which "identifies, educates, and supports immigrants with agricultural experience by helping them become local farmers and establish small farms in the region." Pick up a program fact sheet at the information table to learn more about the program that trains the next generation of our regions farmers.

Farmers in July 6:

• Hodgson’s, Walden, NY -- plenty of plants, rose bushes, herbs, and strawberries
  
• Red Jacket Orchard’s, Geneva, NY -- apples, CHERRIES, juices
• El Mirador Farm, New Jersey -- ZUCCHINI BLOSSOMS, lettuce
• Muddy River Farm, New Hampton, NY -- Lettuce, SUGAR SNAP PEAS, fennel, HERBS, BEETS
• Amantai Farm/Jorge Carmona, Breinigsville, PA -- Lettuce, cucumbers - perfect for pickling or eating as is, greens, zucchini, GREEN BEANS and YELLOW WAX BEANS, honey
• Bread Alone, Boiceville, NY -- bread, pies, muffins
• Meredith’s Bakery, Kingston, NY -- bread, pies, QUICHES, jams
  

Probably (!) coming on July 6: Knoll Crest Farm, Hyde Park, NY -- Eggs, chickens, and pasta

COMING SOON ... sometime in July: Valley Shepherd, Long Valley, New Jersey -- artisanal cave aged cheeses, plus yogurt