© Frank H. Jump
I remember walking across the Municipal Parking Lot at the Flatbush Junction on Avenue H on hot summer nights to buy some produce at the green grocers on Nostrand Avenue. Past the lot, there was the perimeter fence of the railroad that connects the Brooklyn Waterfront to the Canarsie Market, which I never got to see rumble past. I always thought it would make a great commuter railway to connect disparate areas of Brooklyn for once. Occasionally a vagrant would climb up the slope from the tracks and wander out of a hole in the fence to resume collecting cans or rearranging their possessions in a shopping cart.
When Canal Jeans came to Flatbush, I was astounded. They were pioneers way before the first Flatbush Starbucks replaced the only decent diner on Hillel Place. Then the banks came. We already had banks, and fast food chains, and now places to buy cell phones. To replace the municipal lot where commuters would park to take the train into “the city” to work is a Target Superstore. Now with the Congestion Pricing plans underway, where are commuters going to park? In my driveway.
