Day 923


Day 923




One of a few found along Shore Front Parkway

Day 923

Blue path to the sea

July 10th, 2014



This Mobi-Mat (or reasonable facsimile thereof) is one of many that have been installed in the Rockaways to make it easier for beachgoers — especially the elderly and disabled — to climb over the new, post-Sandy dunes and get to the ocean.

Day 923




URINE DAMAGES THE MURAL.

Day 923

Stony faces

July 10th, 2014


Day 923

From (the Rock)aways

July 10th, 2014



The first wall of a narrative triad by Alice Pasquini spread out across the metropolitan area

Day 923

Lord of the Manor

July 10th, 2014


Day 923

Fresh coat of paint

July 10th, 2014



Old Glory looks a lot sharper than she did a year and a half ago. (Was this hydrant an original '76er?)

Day 923

CLEAN IT UP!

July 10th, 2014


Day 923




THE ELEVENTH OMMANDMENT

Day 923




100 feet or so beyond these chain links, where the boardwalk used to stand before Hurricane Sandy washed it away, is where this picture was taken.

Day 923

9/11 memorial #207

July 10th, 2014



The plaque mounted on this World Trade Center remnant reads:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR BROTHER KNIGHTS
WALTER G. HYNES AND FRANKLYN J. MONAHAN
AND ALL VICTIMS OF THE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 TERRORISM

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
ROCKAWAY COUNCIL #2672

DEDICATED
SEPTEMBER 19, 2004

Day 923

Sandy high-water mark

July 10th, 2014



4 feet 6 inches at this location

Day 923

Portal of the day

July 10th, 2014



The long-abandoned Rockaway Courthouse. The most recent plans for this structure call for it to be turned into a medical center.



Day 923

Churchagogue of the day

July 10th, 2014



This building, the former Temple of Israel, was erected in the early 1920s after a fire destroyed the congregation's previous home — "the first permanent house of worship for the large Jewish population in the Rockaways" — which had been constructed on this site around 1900.

Day 923

Looks pretty dead to me

July 10th, 2014


Day 923

Boats in the trees

July 10th, 2014



(There's a marina next door.)

After taking this photo, I continued to the end of Beach 84th Street, which terminates at what appeared to me to be a house standing beside Jamaica Bay. It wasn't until later, when I was looking at a bird's-eye view of the area, that I realized that what I had seen was not a single house by the bay, but rather the end of a row of about 16 bungalows built on a pier that runs out into the water. These unusual houses, apparently more than a century old, were in the news back in 2008 when the state passed a law allowing the city to sell the pier to the homeowners who lived atop it. A few years later, the artist Duke Riley featured the bungalows in one of the stained-glass pieces he designed for the nearby Beach 98th Street subway station.

Day 923

Fiery skies

July 10th, 2014



at the Rockaway Beach Surf Club

Day 923

The asterisk house

July 10th, 2014


Day 923

Lady Sings the Blues

July 10th, 2014



This tribute to Billie Holiday was the first of the post-Sandy Beautify Earth murals painted in the Rockaways. You can see others here.

Day 923

“The Science Of Hair”

July 10th, 2014


Day 923

Women Veterans Monument

July 10th, 2014



This 1989 statue was the city's first monument to honor the women who've served in the US military during wartime. It was commissioned by a local American Legion post, which planned to install it in Rockaway's Veterans Memorial Plaza, next to the World War I doughboy memorial (cast in 1927; reportedly the peninsula's oldest sculpture).

However, the city's Art Commission (now called the Design Commission) rejected the statue as ''not strong enough artistically", preventing it from being permanently placed on city property. So the Legionnaires made a stopgap arrangement with the Parks Department to temporarily install the monument across the street from the doughboy (placements of a year or less were not subject to Art Commission approval) while they searched for a permanent location.

But the statue, now known to some as "the doughgirl", still stands across from the doughboy today. It seems that its popularity with the community has led the city to overlook the fact that it's not really supposed to be here — at least that was the case as of 2003. (This brings to mind the story of the Fred Lebow statue in Central Park, which is briefly relocated each year to maintain its status as technically temporary.)

Day 923

JUICE

July 10th, 2014



at Veggie Island