Psychogeography - Woodside, Queens

Sabba Park's Compass

Psychogeography - "a slightly stuffy term that's been applied to a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities. [It] includes just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape." - Utne Reader
Location: Woodside, Queens
Method: 25 coin flips at corners: tails - turn left, heads - turn right
Participants: Jeremy Beck (who researched almost all of the links below for me), Phineas Beck, and Linda Beck
Inspiration: Create Culture (click to join! You should!)

1. START @ Windmuller Park, named after a German immigrant who prospered in banking and summered in Woodside until his death in 1913 and once remarked that "a good rule to make your tramp a really enjoyable pastime is to be careful and not walk too fast.". Tramp is an underused word - especially in this context. tails - left on 52nd Street. Nice cool breeze and whispering leaves in the trees.

2. heads - right on Skillman

3. tails - left on 51st Street: Fire House for Hook & Ladder 163 / Engine 325 Firehouse, built in 1939. Charming facade.
4. tails - left on 43rd Avenue. There are a number of these moving barber shop poles around the neighbourhood. There is only one company in the United States that manufactures them.
5. heads - cross 43rd Ave
6. tails - cross Roosevelt; under 7 train tracks (running since 1915, designated "7" since 1948; Straphangers 2nd best train in NYC, 2007)
7. heads - right on Queens Boulevard: Past Irish Apostolate, VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Post 2813 (established in 1933), and the Puritan Hall of Education
8. tails - straight on Queens Boulevard (no actual right turn). Passed by Boston Market with illegitimate-looking font. Me to Jeremy, "Why would we ever do Boston Market when everything they make, we make better?"
9. tails - left on 50th Street: across the Boulevard of Death* (from 1993 to 2000, 72 pedestrians were killed trying to cross the road). This rollerskating risk-taker tempted death by showing off his skating skills in the middle of traffic.
Then, continued down past a very noisy bird who was on a window sill in a cage, and then to "Chez José," Jeremy's former home, named after the landlord. Jeremy and our dear friend, James, had a lease there from September 2000- September 2002. José was from Columbia and spent months at a time there, leaving his family (who lived in the basement apt.) in charge of turning on the heat (which they rarely did). The place looks like it has enjoyed a fair amount of landscaping since they moved out.
10. heads - right on 47th Avenue: a peek into the back alley. These semi-detached homes afford quite a few amenities to the owners in garages, parking, storage space, etc.
11. heads - right on 49th Street
12. tails - left on Queens Boulevard. Peace has been abandoned on the sidewalk here. 13. heads - straight across Queens Boulevard to Sabba Park, named after Joe Sabba (1916-1999), a WWII vet and long-time editor of the Woodside Herald.
14. tails - left across Queens Boulevard
15. tails - left onto Queens Boulevard
16. tails - left back across Queens Boulevard to Sabba Park again (circle)
17. tails - straight on 48th Street
18. tails - continued straight on 48th Street (no actual turn), where, instead of loud birds, people keep lawn trolls in window cages.
19. heads - right on 47th Avenue
20. tails - left on 47th Street. Apparently, this is a barber shop with a secret.
21. tails - left on 48th Avenue
22. tails - left on 49th Street
23. tails - left on 47th Avenue, where competing laundry mats attempt to lure customers with different laundry accessory awning characters from a seemingly different era.
24. heads - right on 47th Street. This barber shop has some rad, vintage chairs:25. heads - right on Queens Boulevard to head back home!

*This link (see number 9 Boulevard of Death above for context) is from a terrific blog that I highly recommend, that explores and investigates "forgotten" places in New York.