On that day, a Hasidic man drove through this intersection as the traffic signal was changing (it's unclear whether it was yellow or red), struck another vehicle, and veered onto the sidewalk in front of those apartment buildings, hitting and killing a 7-year-old black boy. The accident brought simmering racial tensions to a head and set off three days of anti-Semitic violence now known as the Crown Heights riots.
The slippery painting is still here! (Just to the right of the fish, you can see the tetragrammaton, the origin of "Jehovah".)
I passed by this block-long remnant back in January, but had not walked it until today. In defiance of its deadly reputation, it was teeming with life; you may just be able to make out the vibrant zoo of children down the block running around in the middle of the street.
Jamaica's king of comedy tackles the issues of donmanship in his latest play.
