Library Report 2

SITE REPORT2

Site Report 1 Kristopher Garay (1)

Walton Avenue, the street that passes behind the Grand Concourse Courthouse and Connects to 161st street itself. The street I live on isn’s very clean and has many loitering people but is a very lively block that doesn’t sleep until maybe 3 or 4 in the morning. you can hear Hispanics playing their music out loud at 2 am while smoking hookah, or smell the weed being smoked by many of its residents. It is not a very clean street or area, to say the least. It is a very urbanized area that contains numerous amounts of places you can think of. there are eateries, beauty supply shops, hair salons, barber shops, and even a City MD that had just recently opened up. Not to mention the nearby mall that is a walking distance from the stadium. Oh, and let’s not forget the stadium. The most famous entertainment piece of the entire neighborhood where hundreds of thousands of people from all boroughs, and sometimes maybe even some states, join together to watch one team annihilate opposing teams who dare challenge them on their home turf. right across from that stadium, where the old Yankee Stadium used to reside, there lays Macombs Dam park. A nice, gentrified, park open to the public that includes amenities like baseball fields, basket ball courts, a track and field, out door gym, and even a much more.

The area itself is not exactly my favorite due to all the bad influences that surround me, but it’s the most sustainable which I find easy for me because I have no need to travel far distances to find what it is that I want and or need. There’s even another park that sits across the street from the pre-war building I live in, Franz Sigel Park. Franz Sigel is the oldest of the two parks and the filthiest. My mother has gotten mugged there as a kid, there is always trash lying around, and the place always reeks of urine. However, due to the gentrification all that is beginning to change. to start off, the outer walls have slowly begun to get repainted from a dirty brick red to a spinach green. Even the trees are being replaced and updated on my street. To be honest I kind of like and accept the gentrification except for the price hikes. The rent has gone up and eviction notices are already being given out. God only knows how much City MD charges people. But some of the areas flavors have yet to be removed.

There is still graffiti art on the wall over on Gerard Avenue, and the majority of the eateries have not been replaced. Although there is this giant shopping/residential complex that is being built there the old abandoned bowling alley used to stand. Who knows what is going to happen next to the area that I reside. Times will start to become slightly more difficult, but I’m just glad to see the area becoming more updated and the bad influences are slowly diminishing.