So the Carroll Street Subway Plaza Stays
According to the Brooklyn Paper, the fight against developer Billy Stein's plan to eliminate the open-air, train watching sidewalk has a resolution:
The much-loved F-train plaza at the Carroll Street station will stay!
Developer Billy Stein, who owns a portion of the concrete plaza above the Second Place entrance to the F-line station agreed this week to maintain the courtyard as an open space even as he moves forward with a seven-story luxury building above it and on a parking that borders on the corner of Smith Street.
I, for one, don't really understand the delight many get from watching for the train and then running into the station at the last moment so as not to miss it, but I am happy it will keep the neighborhood happy. Now, however, that the neighborhood has its plaza back, maybe someone will look into making it a nicer looking, cleaner space. I'm thinking benches, plant boxes and such. Sure the transit garden across the street is pretty to look at, but you can rarely go in there as the gate is usually locked. So the challenge: Which of you neighborhood rebel-rouser is going to follow through and do something here?
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It's your upstairs neighbor here: I am so happy to read this! It's not the thrill of running down to the train, it's the freedom to wait in the fresh air rather than in the stuffy, sweaty underground. I'd been so sorry about losing that outdoor plaza, and am very relieved that (in the decent months anyway) I'll still be able to get a little sun and breeze as I wait the twenty minutes for a train. Thanks for passing it along! -- Oh, and you don't have to run. When you see a train coming, you can pretty much amble and still make it in plenty of time. I have even successfuly purchased a metrocard in the time it takes from spying the train to the doors opening.
sorry but there's nothing uglier in the neighborhood than the exposed subway track. that is the reason why smith st btw 1st and 9th looks like a slum.
I actually think it's pretty beautiful. Especially as shot in the opening of Smoke. The elevated train makes those block looks like a city, not like a slum. Now the elevated BQE....that's a different story.
Rebecca is right on both counts. Wish there was a way to wait outside while waiting for trains at the dreadful Borough Hall station.