The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Klosings and Korners - And A New Veterinarian

As the neighborhood's transformation continues in stride, changes abound that once would have garnered speculation and concern. Now, they seem inevitable, unsurprising, a near-constant churn of economic reality.

Take the closing of Bargain Hunters at the SE corner of Flatbush/Clarkson. Is anyone really surprised by this one? This has always been my go-to for household goods, though I'm now enamoured of the ma & pa discount store across the street next to the Tower Appliance store, another surprise hit for those of you willing to shop local for everything from refrigerators to laptops. Folks have been speculating about residential tower at the below site, but the workers told neighbors it'll be a grocery store. Before you guess Union Market or some such, consider that the green-grocer at the other end of the block (Flatbush/Lenox) just closed after 20-30 years.

BUT WAIT. Just today, up goes a sign with that familiar jingle jingle price of 99 cents. (So much for those $10 artisinal organic chocolate bars with so much salt you can't taste the goddam sugar!)

Ah. The soothing sounds of the very phrase - ninety nine cents.


Sad news for fans of African-origin religious curios and icons and candles and spells, as the quintessential NYC Botanica Ferreile at the corner of Chester and the Flabenue is soon to shutter. Stores like this service serious and casual practitioners of such religions as Voudun and Santeria, the remarkable mixtures of anima spiritual traditions and the idolatry of Catholicism forced upon slaves by missionaries. That these religions survived is a testament to the power of magic (my word) in the lives of billions around the world. I loved looking in, but I'll admit my stubborn agnosticism kept me from wandering inside, because despite my disbelief, I'm still a bit spooked by this stuff. I'm a boringly modern human, which means I'm a post-Hegelian mess, forever doomed to be a walking talking contradiction of non-belief and superstition.






And then of course there's THIS korner. Who amongst you has not gasped in horror? Granted, no one will die because of this hideous tumor atop this grand old korner apartment building, but damn, this is perhaps the worst job of building enlargement I have ever seen. A too-small helmet on an old centurion. Sheesh.


Oh. And a new veterinarian. There is no logical tie-in here...just noting a place to bring your pets for a tune-up. Flatbush below Woodruff.


3 comments:

Alter Kocker said...

Back in the late 90s or early oughts, there was a botanic on Flatbush Avenue between Prospect and Saint Marks. The cellar doors were open one time I walked by, and there was a white chicken (or maybe rooster?) walking around. I guess someone had an upcoming court case or lover's spat or who knows what?

Josh said...

The green market closing on Lenox hurts. Their watermelons were seriously the best on the strip.

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