And No, I'm Not on the Canarsie Tourism Board

Thursday 8/17: Canarsie & East New York

Distance: 7.60 miles
Time: 1:00
Pace: 7:54
Temp: 74
Dewpoint: 60
Weather: sunny

click on image for interactive map



Unique Miles Today: 6.79
Total Unique Miles: 261.90
Percent of Brooklyn Run: 15.03

Route: Starting at Livonia and Van Sinderen, I went south on Van Sinderen to Dewitt, east a block to Snediker, south to Stanley, west a block to 108th, south to Seaview, west to 102nd, south to Shore Parkway, west to Rockaway Parkway, and north to Schenk. Then I ran all of that little section west of Rockaway and south of Seaview (including Schenk, Skidmore, St. Jude, Seaview Court, and those couple of blocks of 91st, 92nd, 93rd, 95th, and Canarsie). Then I headed north on 92nd to Matthews, curving around and back onto Schenk, then west to 91st, north to Avenue M, east to 105th, and north to Farragut. I took the L home.

Notes: Canararsie, more than most of the neighborhoods I've seen, really seems to embody the contrasts of people, built environment, and natural landscape that make Brooklyn such a great place to run (and to live, for that matter). There are run-down, poorer areas, to be sure, but there are also very pleasant, tree-lined suburban-looking streets. There are the ubiquitous urban fixtures like bodegas and storefront churches, but you've also got the pier and the nature preserve alongside Fresh Creek (which, though it looked nice enough, didn't smell particularly fresh). A major highway like the Belt Parkway runs only a few blocks from alley-like residential streets barely wide enough to drive a car down (like Matthews and Schenk Places), and I saw folks of any number of various races and ethnicities walking to work or sweeping their sidewalks or just hanging out on their stoops. And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth, and the hens lay hard-boiled eggs... Alright, so it's not quite the Big Rock Candy Mountain. But Canarsie does seem to be a quintessentially Brooklyn place, at least based on my little forays into the various corners of the borough. And that's not so bad.

That said, it wasn't my best day for pictures -- maybe I was too wrapped up in thought to really notice everything. So, my apologies for a weak crop this morning:


Starrett City, from the Canarsie side of Fresh Creek


Rockaway Parkway


96th Street


92nd Street