Late afternoon. Early winter. End of the year.
That was today’s ride, down the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront and back.
I lingered a bit at the Long Island City promenades op and piers. I started riding there long before it sprouted glass towers, trendy cafes and young people who might be a little too self-consciously hip for their own good.
Back then, it was an industrial area where each block, it seemed, showed a different stage of post-industrial decay. But it felt comfortable, to me anyway, like a sweater that might look a bit tattered but feels right. One thing that hasn’t changed is that it offers some nice harbor vistas and the best views of my two favorite Manhattan skyscrapers—the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings. I wonder, though, whether we’ll be able to enjoy those views for much longer: It seems that developers are building more and more, as tall and as close as possible to those edifices, as possible.
I mean, if they continue to hem it in, nobody will be able to see this, from Long Island City or anywhere else.
Still, the ride was a nice ending to a day and a year, at the beginning of winter.
