Highbridge

Dan from Woodycrest

Dan from Woodycrest

Dan used to live in the neighborhood, “right over there, on Woodycrest, sixth floor.” Back in the Forties, when kids played stickball in the streets, “There were very few cars then, in a working class neighborhood, not until after the Korean War were there many cars. The kids owned the streets.” Nelson Playground used to include a miniature golf course, something unsuited to the neighborhood’s character even then. Dan now lives up in Kingston, NY, and had returned to look around. “You can’t believe all the memories this place brings back.”

West 166th Street steps

West 166th Street steps

The steps leading up to the Highbridge area from Jerome Avenue. West 166th Street, of course.

view of High Bridge Water Tower

view of High Bridge Water Tower

Looking across the High Bridge, from the Highbridge neighborhood, (I think I have that right) toward the Water Tower on the Manhattan side.

Rehabilitation of the High Bridge, re-opening 2014

Rehabilitation of the High Bridge, re-opening 2014

The NYC Parks Department currently plans to complete their work on the bridge by summer 2014. Oddly, I did not Photoshop that sign to emphasize it. In fact, I do work with most of my pictures in GIMP – enhancing the color, minimizing sky haze, cropping them, bringing out the contrast, adjusting for perspective distortion, etc. But that blue and white sign just popped on the raw image.

P.S. 11, Ogden Avenue

P.S. 11, Ogden Avenue

pink house on University Avenue

pink house on University Avenue

Welcome to Sedgwick Houses, birthplace of hip-hop

Welcome to Sedgwick Houses, birthplace of hip-hop

Just across the accursed CBE from Highbridge stand the endless brick walls of Sedgwick Houses. #1520 Sedgwick (the actual building that DJ Kool Herc started hip hop at a house concert on August 11, 1973) is down the hill from this scene.