An Advertisement For Old Weeksville?

One thing I love about pedaling through neighborhoods tourists don't visit is the glimpses I get of the city as it was-- and still is, in the memories of people who've been in it for a long time.

Once upon a time--actually, when I was growing up and even during the years just after I moved back to New York--signs painted on the sides of buildings were abundant.  One thing the remaining signs tell us is, of course, that there was once a time--not so long ago--when there was enough space between buildings for such signs to be seen.  They also remind us of a time when most of buildings and businesses in this city--even large ones--were owned and operated by the families that originally founded or funded them.  

I found myself thinking about who might have been behind this mural advertisement:

Cardinal Realty Company was registered with the city on 22 June 1951.  It grew to include, as the sign attests, auto insurance and other services before its dissolution on 19 December 1984.  At least, that's the date on which it's listed as "Inactive-Dissolution."  

I don't know when the sign, on the side of an apartment building on St. John's Place, just off Troy Avenue, was painted.  The telephone number shown is NE(vins) 8-9000.  Telephone exchanges were converted from numbers to letters during the 1960's, but telephone numbers were listed in the old way until the 1980s.

The neighborhood in which I saw that sign also is, in its own way, a remnant of an old Brooklyn.  It's usually identified as part of Crown Heights or Bedford-Stuyvesant, but it's actually part of Weeksville, one of the first communities founded in New York by freed and escaped slaves.  Some farmed the land; others started businesses or trained in trades and professions.  Thus, the neighborhood became one of the first middle-class black communities, a status it held well into the 20th Century.  It's still a mostly-black (a mixture of American and Caribbean) neighborhood. Although it's not as prosperous as it once was, it's retained a kind of worn-but-not-shabby working-class dignity reflected in the peeling paint of that sign--and the bricks, smoldering in the light of the setting sun, surrounding it.

Perhaps Cardinal was founded by a descendant of someone who lived out his or her freedom in old Weeksville.

 

Blaming Ian

As you've heard by now, Hurricane Ian trashed parts of Florida's west coast and did a lot of damage elsewhere.  Here in New York, we escaped the vice of his grip, but his sleeve brushed us, if you will.  So, while no part of Long Island resembles Sanibel Island, we were tossed and drenched as if we were passengers on an unstable ship.

Fortunately for us, there wasn't much damage and I didn't hear about any power outages.  But, from Friday evening through this morning, enough fell from the sky, and the wind was strong to keep me off my bike for the weekend.

I think the last time I went a whole weekend without riding at this time of year was when I was "doored" two years ago.  At least I had an excuse then:  thirty stitches and a torn muscle.  I suppose that to someone who's not a dedicated cyclist, I had an excuse this weekend. I don't mind wind or rain, up to a point.  If precipitation turns into a cataract and I can't see more than a few bike lengths in front of me, or if I can barely make headway against the wind, I won't ride unless I must.  

Even if I had an "excuse," I feel like a bit of a wimp.  But, I tell myself, I'll ride again and I didn't see carbon lycra crowd in the bike lane outside my apartment.  Not that I think they're any standard of a "dedicated cyclist," but I feel somehow vindicated.  They'll ride, and I'll ride.  I like to think that even if I don't have a lot of years left, I expect to continue riding, however slowly, long after they've moved on to other things.  And I was cycling before they were born.

All right, you didn't read this to hear me being smug and self-righteous.  So I'll leave you with something I saw while riding home late Thursday, before Ian came knocking.

Once You Get There, You Need To Get Around

Recently, NASA announced its intention to send humans to the moon for the first time in half a century.

I hope that the astronauts will have everything they need:

 

From Pinterest

After all, once they get there, they'll need to get around.  And, from what I understand, transportation options are limited on, let alone under, the lunar surface.