2016-02-26 40 -73

Location

Deep inside the Eisenstadt Administration Building, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn

Participants

Plans

I really wanted to get this one because it would finally complete my goal of reaching hashpoints in all 5 boroughs of New York City. I pictured a big, open, brightly-lit hospital lobby / corridor area where I could anonymously wander around until I could be assured of having passed through the hash.

I had dinner plans downtown but nothing afterward, so figured this would be a late but still pre-midnight expedition. The hospital was not far from the D subway train, in Borough Park, a Hasidic Jewish neighborhood of Brooklyn. My biggest initial concern was that it might be closed for the sabbath (Friday night) but then I thought, of course not, they still have to be open all the time.

Expedition

So it was that I set out from Manhattan at 10pm with confidence and excitement. There was a bit of a bad sign in that the train went extremely slowly making the final two stops, but I recalled it was normal for this part of the line, and set out walking for the hospital unperturbed through the chilly night. I got there within just a few minutes, and quickly found the first real bad sign: the piece of the complex holding the hash was not a big, open, brightly-lit hospital lobby / corridor area, but a nearly windowless bricked-in office building, labeled EISENSTADT ADMINISTRATION BUILDING in minimalist signage that looked unchanged since 1975. Was I even going to be able to get in??

First I tried seeing if I could just get the hash by reaching close enough on the sidewalk for the droid to be happy, a la 2015-02-08 40 -73. Unfortunately it would not be convinced - the error circle was good and small, and the point was well inside the building. I doubted any of the doors would be open this late, but I had to try anyway.

I counted paces back to the corner of the building for reference (twenty-seven), and tried the first nondescript door... locked. The second... locked. But look, here's a more official looking entrance! Amazingly, it was open, and the security guy didn't ask me any questions, he just let me walk right in at 11pm. I quickly realized this was a much more low-key, smaller hospital than I'd been picturing, with narrow, empty corridors and humble signage.

I needed a hallway turning off to the right, in order to line up with the hash. There was a big one at just a few paces in, another smaller one at sixteen paces, and a similar one well past twenty-seven, but nothing remotely close to twenty-seven paces. And none of these cross corridors led me to any other way forward/backward, besides the main hallway. So it seemed this was not going to work. I tried going down to the basement where it looked like there was more space, but there was no access to the interior at all on that level. No one ever gave me a glance; the few staff left were just going about their work.

I went outside with the droid to pace it off again more carefully, just to be sure -- it was indeed twenty-seven paces in, and seventeen paces to the right, way too far to be within reasonable error in the main hallway. I went back inside (again, no hassle) and strolled seventeen paces through the tiny sixteen-pace corridor to reach the very closed offices of... Peter Johnson, RN and Sondra J. Olendorf, RN. Or at least those were the award plaques on the wall. This was the closest possible approach on this floor, but still eleven strides (10m?) off. I usually try to get within more like 3-4m (yellow GPS error.)

I exited the building in great disappointment, but then looked up and remembered there were other floors! In particular a big wide lit-up skybridge connected the building to its neighbor across the street, which looked more public and inviting. Would that level have more room? Alas, the neighbor building also turned out to be just a warren of corridors and offices above the ground floor, including the skybridge, which was windowless and packed with more offices. The third story of the Eisenstadt building turned out to have the same stupid hash-thwarting layout as the first, as shown by the helpful fire safety map by the elevators. (Though it was even emptier than the first floor.)

But I still figured I might as well try the second, fourth and fifth stories. The former two were also identical to the first floor, but the fifth floor was different! Finally, a chance! It housed the hospital's library, which clearly extended off to the right toward the hashpoint in the stacks. But it had closed for the evening at 9pm... while I was still in Manhattan. Drat.

Desperately, I walked up one more flight of stairs to the roof exit, to see if it was open. It actually gave a little! but was bolted shut. My dreams were dashed. It was only at this moment that it occurred to me that if anyone was watching the security cameras, this was all gonna look REALLY suspicious. (I have not gotten any contact from the police or from the hospital in the three days since, though, so I think I'm OK.)

And so I left the building for the last time, briskly walking back to the station through the nearly empty late-night Borough Park streets, defeated but proud that I'd tried so comprehensively. To make matters even sillier, the internet said the Manhattan-bound subway had been rerouted off this line because of mechanical problems, so I had to take an alternate route. At first I thought about taking an outbound train to a junction and riding another line home, but then I realized this was actually a nice excuse to explore Brooklyn more.

So I decided to walk the half hour west through Sunset Park, which I'd heard of but never seen. It was actually quite interesting - the bungalows and rowhouses and three-flats were uniquely Brooklyn, and the ethnic groups living in the neighborhood changed from heavily Jewish to heavily Chinese to heavily Latino in just a few blocks. After 6th Ave the terrain fell away steeply toward the water, and it almost felt like Park Slope. I just missed the subway on 4th, but finally made it home and went straight to sleep.

I will conquer you someday, Brooklyn!!!

Photos

First view of the hospital
My target lay within. (At far left you can see the door I ended up using.)
Nearest spot on the sidewalk outside...
... not near enough :(
The corridor of nearest approach
The optimal point in the corridor, still 11 strides too far southeast
Geohash Droid thinking I got the point, but I'm indoors so the circle is huge :>
The hashpoint was somewhere in the blank space above and to the right of that pair of elevators.
Late night empty hospital, with cafeteria in Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Yiddish and English
The closed library holding the hash... so close yet so far!!
The similarly closed roof access...
Borough Park
Sunset Park


Fri 26 Feb 2016 in 40,-73: 40.6395631, -73.9986172 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox