Steven Rodriguez
Professor Rosen
English 1101
28 October 2011
Overlapping New Yorks: Columbus Park
On my walk around City Tech I walked towards the Jay Street-MetroTech train station. I made a right into a walkway next to the Marriott Hotel towards Adams Street. I crossed Adams Street and went up the stairs. The Supreme Court building is to your right and the park is right there. I walked around the park; first thing I saw was the fountain and the Christopher Columbus statue in front of the Supreme Court. I walked down and saw the Robert F. Kennedy statue. As I started to walk away from the courthouse, the park started becoming more natural. The more I walked down the park I noticed the change in scenery. Then, I saw the Henry Ward Beecher statue which we observed during our walk tour. Therefore, I had a good recollection of that statue.
I saw multiple overlapping New Yorks. I saw commercial, man-made, and natural all in one place. Across the street from Columbus Park were TD Bank and more banks. It was very commercial on that side. As you walk down the park towards the Henry Ward Beecher statue it is calmer and quieter. There is not as much going on as by the Supreme Court and Borough Hall building. It is mostly surrounded with trees, gardens, and a few statues. This is where I saw the man-made and natural juxtaposition come into play. Especially by the Robert F. Kennedy statue, because of the grass and trees surrounding it. It is like the trees are in jail. The reason for this theory is because of the fences that surround the gardens and trees. This causes one to be restrained from the natural objects. One cannot physically feel the trees or walk over the grass. The gardens are beautiful, it is just saddening that the natural objects we can feel are less maintained than the ones we cannot feel. The fact that the Supreme Court building is in a park partially explains the man-made and natural juxtaposition as well. Due to the fact that there is a court inside a park surrounded by nature.
I chose Columbus Park because ever since the walking tour I was interested in looking around and observing the park as a whole, and be able to summarize my experience. Columbus Park was my favorite place during the walking tour, therefore this assignment made me want to go back. I thought this was the perfect place for this assignment for me because I loved the park during the walking tour and we needed somewhere around City Tech. I did not have enough time to focus on it during the walking tour because it was limited. Therefore, I went back to make sure I get a clearer picture. The park is like the gateway to Brooklyn Heights for me. Columbus Park tells me a story of rich history in Brooklyn.
The whole reading of âCity Limitsâ by Colson Whitehead is perfect for overlapping New Yorks and how one shapes their own skyline of New York. Even if they were to change Columbus Park, I would still picture it how it was when we went on the walking tour and when I walked around it that day. I would still have that juxtaposition stuck in my head of Borough Hall, the Columbus Statue, and all of the gardens. If the Columbus statue were taken down today, and I walked by Columbus Park tomorrow then I would say âHey, thatâs where the Columbus Statue was atâ. According to Colson Whitehead, one âcan never make proper goodbyesâ (Whitehead 3). The park made me think about how different New York can get in just a matter of a couple steps. You never get a warning or a heads-up. You are just stuck with the memories of how things were when you first saw them. If someone were to go after the statue was gone, then whatever is there is what they will keep with them in their memories. Just like I keep the Columbus Statue in my memory since it is what I saw there when I first went to Columbus Park. In the article âWho Knows Brooklynâ in The New Yorker, Merlis spoke about not doing books on gentrified neighborhoods (McGrath 2). After my experience in Columbus Park and reading the article, I realized that there is no other place in the world there are so many overlaps. My area was not gentrified but more of an overlap of nature and man-made. There are mostly hotels and once you cross Court Street into Brooklyn Heights the neighborhood only gets better. Yet at the same time the experience helped me realize the many overlaps in the city. New York changes in so many different ways neighborhood by neighborhood, it is a city filled with overlaps.
In summary, there is a juxtaposition of nature and man-made objects in Columbus Park. The fences around the trees can make one feel restrained from nature. The trees and grass behind the fences look better kept than the nature objects out in the open in the park. Hopefully, one will take this trip with the directions I gave above and analyze the park the same way I did or maybe not. One can also have a different experience and maybe have a different juxtaposition.
