Day: October 10, 2015

Our world is made with many different pieces. New York is one piece of the world, Brooklyn is one piece of New York, and the two locations I choose are pieces of Brooklyn. The two locations are Adams street and the part of Jay street that between Tillary street and Sand street.

It is Jay street when you walk out of the  Namm building of city tech. Turn left and on your right hand side, it’s the Amalgamated bank. Go across the Tillary street. There is a park called McLaughlin park. You can see people playing basketball and handball there. Next to the park, you can see the Cathedral Basilica of St. James, the the cathedral church of the Diocese of Brooklyn. Keep going straight on Jay street, there is another building of city tech. If you look forward, you will see the Manhattan bright. A lots of people walking on it. Turn right on the Sand street. There is an eyes catching long aisle between two buildings. Keep going down on Sand street, it is Brooklyn bright! And you can see the buildings in Manhattan from there. I think it would be awesome if you look at them at night. Turn left at the end of Sand street, it is the Adams street. There are many cars parking on that street. Keep going forward, there is a big park on the other side called Whitman park. But it is covered by a few buildings. Also you can see some government buildings like US Post Office, Surrogates Court, and Kings Country Supreme Court.

The route I chose to walk from city tech was joyful for me. Before I started the walk, I didn’t know what I would meet and experience. I didn’t carefully look at the map. So everything on the route were new for me. And I was really looking forward to it. But when I went across the Tillary street and looked all the way down along the Jay street. I felt like that was nothing special. I could see those surroundings anywhere in Brooklyn. And that made me a little disappointed. But after I kept walking for a while, I realized that there is Brooklyn, that is how it looks like. This route I chose is piece of Brooklyn. And many of these pieces made up Brooklyn. Every day I am on the same route from home to school. It keeps repeating and that almost makes me forget the name of the place I live. But when I carefully looked at the buildings, the parks, and the people on the route I chose, I felt like that they were reminding me that there is Brooklyn, the place I am living in. Then I walked on the Adams street. And it surprised me. The buildings were different  from the Jay street’s. The buildings looked more Modernized. And I felt like I saw a new face of Brooklyn. These two street’s buildings create a juxtaposition. The buildings on Jay street look plain. The buildings on Adams street look majesty, such as the US Post Office, the Surrogates Court, and the Kings Country Supreme Court.

The reason I chose these two subjects is that they look different. The buildings on Adams street are tall and complex. The US Post Office, the Surrogates Court, and the Kings Country Supreme Court all look solemn. The buildings on Jay street between Tillary street and Sand street are shorter and simpler. What strikes me the most is the St James Cathedral. And I want to know when is it built? why did they choose this location? what is the concept of this building?

In the reading “City Limits”, Colson Whitehead once said, “The New York City you live in is not my New York City; how could it be? This place multiplies when you’re not looking. We move over here, we move over there. Over a life time, that adds up to a lot of neighborhoods.” I said that the buildings on Jay street between Tillary street and Sand street seem like nothing special. I can see those surroundings anywhere in Brooklyn. The surroundings look like the same but actually they are different because of the neighborhoods. Whitehead also said, “All our old places are proof that we were here.” Even we live in a same street, the street can be different because it has different meanings for different people live in here. And those meanings are also pieces of the street. Like I said at the beginning, “Our world is made with many different pieces.”