Jail Moolah

I was walking with my girlfriend this evening down Jay/Smith Street north of Atlantic and we passed by the jail vehicle entrance.

Now whoever lives at 75 Smith or the Nu Hotel sitting there (they managed to put out a chalkboard stand harping on 5 dollar martinis even though nobody is ever in the first floor bar) must either feel uneasy watching buses of handcuffed persons come in across the street or totally fascinated that in the middle of a yuppified neighborhood there's still a reminder of the county courts a couple blocks north, holding all the anger, frustration, and fateful legal discourse of one of the most dynamic areas in the country. Was that a run-on sentence?

Anywho, a man quietly approached us and said, "Excuse me buddy, but could you spare a quarter, I just got out of jail." I unfortunately did not even have any change on me as we were just escorting a friend a few blocks to Atlantic. He was wearing a classically ugly holiday sweater, which reminded me of a wonderfully hideous sweater I have in my closet that I cannot wait to wear. I wondered how long he had been lingering around the jail; I'm assuming a few hours if he was processed during normal work hours but I could be completely wrong.

I wondered what his next step was along with what he could have possibly done to land in jail. Hopefully he gets where he's going. It isn't superbly cold tonight, but to exit an unfamiliar (or maybe familiar) environment with nothing on you, I can't imagine the numerous things that go through your mind. Since I'm assuming nobody was there to greet him upon his exit, the feeling of being alone and out there in the night has to be a little crushing. His explanation that he was in jail probably would turn people off but it was meant to grab a little sympathy I think.

Then again, he could have been dangerous. I apologized anyway and passed him on the corner as he slowly walked without a sense of direction, searching for another sympathetic ear.

Metrotech Chillaxes on the Security, Now Allowing City Busing Plus Other Newsies

Conan is better than ever by the way, or if you want SEO-optimized I guess I should say Conan is the funniest late night show on TV.

Nope that dog run for Downtown Brooklyn might not get going until there's a little more oomph in the petitions, however, ever since the Metrotech here in Downtown Brooklyn decided to open up to vehicles (if there was a hospital in there and your wife was going into labor they STILL probably wouldn't let you in) I'm curious to see how traffic patterns will change.

The B54 bus that bobs and shakes to Ridgewood in Queens but also travels down Myrtle will be cutting across the Metrotech Center, part of a diversion and also part of a future revamped Jay Street-Borough Hall subway station. You know, because the areas a changin'.

What's awesome is that there is so much good stuff happening on Dekalb and Myrtle in general. I could cross over Flatbush in about 3 minutes but it's pretty awesome to add yet another transportation arm; it's what makes this area really fantastic, given we have all the subway lines except 3 (not including shuttles) and a gazillion buses at Fulton.

In more news, Filene's Basement is coming to the Fulton Mall, as well as a long-awaited Shake Shack. All that hubbub over the changes is definitely starting to come to pass. CityPoint is setting up shop online with a new One Dekalb retail center (in the old Albee Square about two blocks away), which actually will be close enough to the point where the quiet blocks of the Metrotech are probably going away over the next couple of years.

That was the most interesting thing about the B54, starting to see more traffic through the Metrotech, I gotta make sure I look both ways again. It was nice to have a super quiet block, serene next to the mall. It's still quiet for sure, but I definitely want to not only see the changes, but feel them as well.