2016-03-20 40 -73

Location

By a modest residential sidewalk in Inwood, Long Island

Participants

OtherJack

Plans

Take the Long Island Railroad out, walk to the point, and take the NYC Subway A train back through the Rockaways and over Jamaica Bay, which I'd never done before.

Expedition

Trains out all worked surprisingly well and before long I was in Long Island, for only the second time ever. (The first was also for a geohash nearby.) At first it was big malls and shopping centers, but then it quickly became very humble, low-lying, bricky and residential, and denser than suburbs in the rest of the country. Almost reminded me of London suburbs but flatter and quieter.

I got off the train at Inwood, which turned out to be perhaps even quieter, smaller, and lower income (though not poor.) There were a few quirky businesses and signs, which you can see below, including Hispanic and Jewish establishments among others. In 10 or 15 minutes I reached the point, which was in front of a modest house on a dead-end, nearly treeless residential street. Behind the dead end was a barbed wire fence and a golf course, and behind that was JFK airport with lots of low-flying planes. Various neighbors arrived and left while I was exploring, but no one suspected me of anything.

From there it was about half an hour south to the Far Rockaway subway terminal. I'd heard of the Rockaways and was expecting a busier, more middle-class area but if anything it became even more down-and-out as I approached, with a lot of rusting old industrial sites and shuttered buildings. The area right by the station was much busier though, and resembled any other low-income, immigrant-heavy part of Queens - I would not have guessed we were near the ocean.

The subway turned out to be an elevated train which followed the sea shore for a few miles, allowing me to see the devastation of Hurricane Sandy's 2012 storm surge flooding. Where I had expected buildings and shops and tourists, there were just empty, fenced-in lots of sand and brush. The beach was one huge long construction site, behind lots more fencing. Later the train passed some new oceanfront apartment buildings, but they were the only bright spot in what looked like a very sad story.

Then the train turned right and went over beautiful Jamaica Bay, crossing Broad Channel island which turned out to be full of little houses built on stilts above the water. The island was interlaced with lots of little inlets and washes and creeks. If the planet warms up and Greenland and Antarctica melt as much as feared over the next century, this area would all go under. It makes it seem very fragile.

Crossed the remaining portion of the bay and finally I was back in familiar mainland territory, after passing the JFK airport station.

Photos

Just off the train
AMERICAN SPANISH GROCERIES
Beautiful old landmark obscured by Citibank...
...with only a Mini-Mart
Essential combination
"YOU WORK HARD FOR YOUR MONEY SPEND IT THRIFTY"
Likely no Cocktail Lounge here in... decades
Nearing the hash...
made it!
Hash house (east)
Hash dead-end (north)
Hash empty lot (west)
Hash abandoned neighbor house (south)
Golf course beyond the dead-end
Hash house's side yard
OK, I know this is a perfectly normal religious expression and practical information for millions of people worldwide, BUT, all I can think of when I see it written this way on a truck, is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmULYr1nsZ0
The only time I've ever, ever seen a "GAS SALE" advertised with signs...
...and they are out of gas :>
Clear sign I'm back in New York City limits!
Unexpected view to the water
Far Rockaway, farthest point of the NYC Subway system
All that's left after the hurricane
Rebuilding
More destruction
Jamaica Bay stilt houses
One last look at the Rockaways
Broad Channel