Oh to see Bay Ridge through the eyes of just one of the 37,000 New York City Marathon runners…

Rounding 4th avenue into the embrace of two mega car dealerships, past the now abandoned Hollywood Video that touts a bankruptcy auction over summer blockbusters, just doors down from one of Bay Ridge’s other great pastimes and bankruptcy’s great ‘unwitting’ accomplice – a mortgage banker.

Finding oneself striding past an unusually serene 86th street, that normally teeming ballet between blacktop and steel belted radials – a monument to cheap retail and our neighbors’ eternal struggle to find ideal parking.
And, in place of the usual verbal jousting more akin to Mean Streets than Sesame Place, you found cheers instead of jeers passing a mile marker in front of Saint Anselm’s as you found nourishment in volunteers handing out water and support, in loving memory of a departed friend.

To find oneself being bid farewell by two gas stations, and one “American Place.” Only, instead of oceans white with foam – it’s a sidewalk strewn with tighty-whities.

All and all, a day of perpetual motion with purpose that leaves a sensation (if only for a moment) of a Bay Ridge that can be.

A Bay Ridge, according to residents and marathon watchers, that can be something other than an ‘impersonal’ and ‘driver obsessed’ hamlet of Brooklyn chasing its tail – where children are chauffeured to and from school in the rear seats (one at a time) of tanks disguised as luxury automobiles like faux diplomats – where notions of luxury, privilege and rights are often confused.

“The marathon is hands down one of the best events of the year, I just wish we could make a better impression. What I love more than anything is seeing people out of their cars… people you probably wouldn’t see otherwise,” said one Marathon goer and 4th avenue resident.

While others agree, some take it a step further, urging Bay Ridge to take note of itself in all its post-marathon splendor, particularly the vibrancy of having its streets in the vicinity of 86th overrun with people rather than cars.

“We could learn a lot from what they’ve done in places like Fulton street, downtown Brooklyn… closing that off to non-emergency traffic and making it strictly a pedestrian mall. Or the grass and tree lined dividers along the West Side Highway… maybe one day replacing our own yellow lines with rows of tress up and down 86th,” suggesting one local resident and activist.

“Bay Ridge does not have to live and die by the automobile…you always hear people say the reason they moved is because everything is in walking distance, maybe they need to act like it and start walking.”
(photo courtesy of RightinBayRidge, BayRidgeBlog)

across the blogs:
BrooklynStories: Bay Ridge Walking Tour November10th.
Right in Bay Ridge: Word on the Street, “calling Amy Vanderbilt”
Gowanus Lounge with all news Coney Island redevelopment (Sitt’s outta there)
OTBKB: Park Slope Books is closing, errr…. downsizing, real estate agents weigh in on local school grades and defending the Slope.
Brownstoner: Who’s to blame for poor home sales? Brooklyn Navy saved to the satisfaction of locals?