Tuesday Night at the Park
Tuesday night at my local park was a special night. Why? No reason in particular. It was special because it was a normal night, a weeknight; kids playing, couples walking together, people exercising or playing sports, and all the sounds of the neighborhood, our own little galaxy here in the neighborhood of Bushwick.
The weather was cool and hadn’t reached past 60°F all day. The sky was partly cloudy which sometimes makes for the most dramatic sunsets. I sat in the park for close to an hour observing, breathing, resting, listening to music and watching the sunset.
I recalled the first time I visited Maria Hernandez Park before I lived in the neighborhood. I was meeting someone. I’d just gotten back from a trip upstate and drove straight to the park. I was tired and in a foul mood from being in the car for several hours. I parked the car and walked over to the park. I immediately noticed the large round area at the center of the park which seems to sit on a hill and offers a wide open view of the park. I sat on a bench and enjoyed the fresh air. A drum circle had formed and I listened to the music. I felt this must be one of the best parks in the city.
Listen to a short field recording.
On Tuesday night, a violinist sat down in the circle and practiced. Scooters wizzed by, skateboarders and bicyclists performed their tricks, and the ice cream truck’s jingle floated through the park. The park was full of activity. Children played at the playground. Soccer teams practiced on the turf field. Basketball games, foot-volleyball, and handball matches were in progress.
When entering the park from either entrance on Knickerbocker Avenue, I’m always struck by how the buildings and stately elementary school are situated around the park, making it the town square. Latino men and women greet each other and shake hands. It seems everyone in their community knows one another; they shop, pray, dine and celebrate together. The younger folks, the working professionals, which have occupied the area in recent years give the neighborhood an energertic vibrancy, that this is a happening area.
Aerial Google Maps photo of park. The paths from each corner converge at the central plaza which includes the park house, skateboard ramp, stage, labyrinth, and benches.
P.S. 123 at 100 Irving Avenue. The empty lot across from the school is today’s park.
Back when Brooklyn was it’s own city, circus magnate P.T. Barnum used the current park’s lot for storage. In the 1940s, the New Deal’s WPA built the park we know today. In 1989, Maria Hernandez, local resident and advocate against gang violence, was shot and killed through the window of her apartment on 105 Starr Street. The City Council renamed the park in her memory. Recent improvements to the park included a new basketball court, workout area, and dog runs. The park house and bathroom remain unchanged from it’s New Deal origins, as is the case with many NYC Parks. Today Maria Hernandez Park is the meeting place, backyard and event space for the Bushwick community, where all races, colors and creeds relax and unwind together after a day of work and school.
By 730pm the sun began to display warm, gold colors on P.S. 123 on Irving Avenue and on the cherry blossoms lining the park’s central plaza. Through the park’s large trees - some of the largest in the area - I studied the apartment buildings on Starr Street, all of which are unchanged. My view of the buildings through the trees now bathed in the setting sunlight offered a glimpse into the past and how this area may have looked in the 1940s or 1980s. On Knickerbocker, poking about above the stores and markets is a the dozen-story grey monolith, a reminder of rapid gentrification but which now seems oddly at place. The people and buildings may change but the way the sunlight illuminates the area, the way the rain and snow falls and the wind blows, does not change. It’s in these rare moments that nature allows me to view a place as it might have once looked in the not-so-distant past.
