Only the Good Die Young

Beautiful spring day.  Got a chance to take a nice long walk and was super surprised to see some of the trees already in bloom.

Downtown Brooklyn is getting to have a tiny skyline.  Sort of sad, sort of exciting.

But its nice to see some things don't change.  The favored neighborhood of the Gowanus.  Still slightly untapped but also mainly unaffordable, always ugly but not in the uber hip Williamsburg way.  It's old timey quiet with new world businesses and buildings coming in like an alien invasion.

I normally prefer Brooklyn not for Park Slope or all the brownstones as much as the way it feels like its stayed the same for a hundred years.  And because its right next door to Manhattan, making it that much more incredible that it is preserved.  They are rare now but how great it is to see elderly gentlemen outside of a social club.

We made the trek to the new Whole Foods on 3rd and 3rd.  It did not disappoint really.  It was clean, had amazing selections of every single product I was having trouble finding in my local store.

When you walk up on it, it seems so out of place.  The side entrance looks like it could be located in anytown USA.  It's unclear the murky waters of the Gowanus are directly behind the parking lot.  That whole area was abandoned nothingness so it's as if they came in like Ratner and tore down anything important.  As a matter of fact it looks like they are finally restoring that old building on that same corner.

Monte's, although renovated, feels like a beautiful old Catholic church.  It even has a side parking lot and is located on a side street, a rarity.  Oldest Italian Restaurant in Brooklyn.

3rd and 4th Avenues are wide and cold, treeless. You still find the random piles of garbage on the sidewalks.

New Super 8 Motels mix with long time car shops and barber shops with small windows.

Car lots that actually have a descent square footage.  All these rarities.  Again, not necessarily beauty but somehow wonderful to see.

Street art and fresh morning air lets you experience this neighborhood with another type of view.  Quiet history can also be breathtaking.

This day called for a mixed salad with lemon dressing.