Awnings along Fifth Avenue show history, and change.

The character of Sunset Park comes from its buildings, its park, but primarily from its people.  On my walks through the streets, I hear the soft y’s of Caribbean Spanish from Puerto Rico, the rhythm of Mexican slang, the musical highs and lows of Mandarin and Fujianese, all mixed with that ubiquitous Brooklynese. Yet access remains perhaps the biggest challenge to reporting in Sunset Park.

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Pedestrian crosses Fourth Avenue at 54th Street. This six-land road, an artery for traffic passing along Brooklyn's west side, makes for dangerous crossing.

Yesterday, an SUV fatally struck Hugo Jansen as he crossed Fourth Avenue near 46th Street. The grandfather was, said witnesses, crossing against the light.* I would venture to say most in the neighborhood have. It’s cold. It’s a busy time of year. We all want to rush home.

At the risk of editorializing, I’d like to ask everyone to wait for the walk signal. Read the full story

Matsuo Bashō, the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. Drawing by Sugiyama Sanpû, c. 1700.

One always feels slightly ambivalent receiving more spam comments than genuine ones. In recent days the numbers of products, videos and prescription suggestions has been rather remarkable.
But then spam like this arrives, and the world seems right again:

Having a obstinate demeanour is also utter important.
In vest-pocket, still, memory is not a giant culmination, reasonable corrupt what your motherboard requires.

I have no idea what it means or how its author meant it to promote the lexapro link the spammer had embedded between its lines, but it doesn’t really matter. This latter-day Bashō is the bomb.

Sunset Park Chronicled is three weeks old. It has 2,707 views to date.

Many thanks to all the readers. Although the past few days have been a bit slow, several more in-depth pieces are on deck. As always, leave a comment or send an email if you think something has been overlooked, under-reported, or simply misstated. If you like what you read, that’s great to hear, too.

You can send questions, comments, and suggestions to sunsetparkchron@gmail.com. You can also now follow the Sunset Park Chron on Twitter.

Best,

Lisa