What I Saw on My Walk
Long solo walks are sacred to me. I love moving, exploring, and noticing beauty in the world. Here are some scenes that caught my eye during my many walks in New York and beyond. Yes, I know…touting the benefits of walking is now a well-documented cliche.
An eerily empty Washington Street in March 2020, during early lockdown | Dumbo, Brooklyn
A view of my old apartment building | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Architectural hodgepodge of my dreams | Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
A pandemic panic line outside of Wegman's | Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn
The grassy medium on Albemarle is a wonderfully quiet place to sit and take a break after an eight-mile walk on a nice day. | Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
Lilac bushes outside of an industrial building | Gowanus, Brooklyn
A Redwood tree grows in Brooklyn | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
The curiously small doors of Dennett Place | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Seriously, the doors are so weird. | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Belle Harbor mansions, maybe a little past their heyday | Belle Harbor, Queens
Architectural hodgepodge + roses | Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
Charming alleys of Warren Place | Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Two swans taking off from West Pond at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Manhattan is in the background. | Broad Channel, Queens
Architectural hodgepodge. Old tenements meet new-ish construction. | Two Bridges, Manhattan
Sunset at Copake Lake. I'm another New Yorker who was lucky enough to head upstate for little breaks from pandemic life in the city. | Copake, New York
I'm fascinated by Harrison Alley, a private street with this peculiar little pink house set back at the end. | Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn
I love the optical illusion of this gravel pile. Taken on a ferry ride home after a long walk. | Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn
A message to the garden thief | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
One of the best paths in Green-Wood Cemetery. It's truly magical in the springtime. | Greenwood, Brooklyn
I'm on a mission to visit all of the shortest historic streets in New York City. This one is Albemarle Terrace. | Flatbush, Brooklyn
On a Lyft ride home one evening, two particular blocks caught my eye. They were lined with brick mansions in various conditions. The structures stood out from the row houses of the surrounding blocks. I looked up this neighborhood when I got home -- it's called Millionaire's or Doctor's Row. I went back to visit by foot a few days later. | Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Row house earth tone rainbow | Crown Heights, Brooklyn
A huge house on Ocean Avenue in need of some love. A few days after I took this photo, It went on the market for a few million dollars. | Flatbush, Brooklyn
I love the Q line stations around this area. | Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
The famous Gingerbread House in Bay Ridge. It's an active residence that's about 100 years old. | Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
A mish-mosh of opulent houses lining Shore Road | Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
I spent New Years Day 2021 at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. | Broad Channel, Queens
If the timing and weather worked out, I treated myself to a leisurely ferry home to Brooklyn Heights from Greenpoint after a long walk. If I was lucky, I'd catch this sunset while I wait at the ferry landing. | Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Watching the hundreds of snow geese at the refuge is a multi-sensory experience. | Broad Channel, Queens
A very cold February hike at Shirley Chisholm State Park | Canarsie / Spring Creek, Brooklyn
Architectural symphony | Financial District, Manhattan
Illuminated building at the end of an alley | Soho, Manhattan
Walking on a country road 🎶in the Rockaways | Arverne, Queens
A brick made in a centuries-old Hudson Valley brickyard on the Rockaway side of Jamaica Bay | Arverne, Queens
I love that you can find slices of rural life in the city, like in Brant Point Wildlife Refuge. The site is littered with garbage that's washed ashore, but it's getting better thanks to volunteer and community efforts. | Arverne, Queense
The perimeter of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden looking mighty fine | Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Another architectural hodgepodge | Tribeca, Manhattan
As I snapped this photo of this overgrown lot on a very sleepy block in Vinegar Hill, a guy in a neighboring building walked out and asked me, "Wanna buy a truck?" | Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn
When I lived in Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill Park was a frequent resting stop on my walk to the pottery studio. It's a magical pocket park that's about 3/4 of a city block. | Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
My old building is the backwards L in the middle. | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
I passed by this oddball door probably thousands of times in my eight years living in the neighborhood, and this was the first time I snapped a photo. | Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
Jagged Bowery hodgepodge | East Village/Noho, Manhattan
I had a doctor appointment on the Upper East Side in the morning and a dentist appointment in Soho in the afternoon. I walked from one appointment to the other and spotted a few brave holdouts. | Gramercy, Manhattan
Crazy little holdout on East 42nd Street. | Midtown East, Manhattan
6th Avenue painted ladies | Park Slope, Brooklyn
Another winter walk at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge | Broad Channel, Queens
