Sound of cars on 86th street.
Tasneem and I visited 86th street, between 4th and 5th avenues. It had been snowing a lot the week we visited, so the sides of the streets were piled high with old snow, and slush had formed on the streets. The snow was dirty since it had been piling for a while. The atmosphere was dreary because of the heavy layer of clouds and the freezing temperature. We grabbed her camera and headed over to the corner of 86th street and 4th avenue, which is the center of the area. I recorded the sound of the street after realizing that the cars were noisier than usual because of the slush in the street. Not many people were outside, and even the traffic was much lighter than usual. We observed people on the street for a while, shivering in the cold.
The wind and the cold air were so intense that we could not stay for a long time. We observed a lot, though, in the time we spent there. Even with the inconvenience of the weather, there were two halal food carts on two different corners, and a few people even bought food from them, waiting in the cold for it to be prepared. It was a lot quieter than I was used to for this street, which is why the sounds of the cars was amplified.
There were a lot fewer people on this street than usual because of the weather. 86th street is lined with many different types of shops: clothing stores, gift shops, shoe stores, and even restaurants. It’s also the site where commuters who want to take a bus to Staten Island must go. Several other bus stops and the R train station are also at this street. For these reasons, 86th street is usually bustling with activity from shoppers and commuters.
For our project, we tried to see the difference between different sections in Bay Ridge. One important thing I noticed when I later strolled around the area on my own is that the amount of stores and activity drops dramatically in the streets in the late 80s. Activity also decreases when you go to 3rd avenue. The epicenter of activity is the corner we stood on. On the day we visited, however, only a handful of people could be seen walking about.
86th street represents an important characteristic of Bay Ridge, which is that it is self-reliant. A resident of this neighborhood would not need to leave often because Bay Ridge has many types of stores. There is a wide variety of restaurants. In 86th street alone, there are Vietnamese, Mexican, Japanese, Arabic, and fast food restaurants. There are also plenty of bodegas and supermarkets for personal food shopping. 86th street is a shopping center, so there are many clothing shops there. Even within Bay Ridge, transportation is easy to access. There are buses on third, fourth, and fifth avenues, and a train on fourth avenue. As mentioned before, 86th street has buses that go to Staten Island. This street is a great example of why a person would not have to leave the neighborhood.
86th street is an important part of Bay Ridge. It’s one of the busiest parts of the neighborhood, and has been around as a shopping area for quite some time. Even though time goes by and more chain stores such as Chipotle or Banana Republic are added to this street, 86th street never loses its charm and continues being a big part of Bay Ridge.
