Qaptain Qwerty: SCENES FROM A RUN: MANHATTAN BEACH

Today is Day 3 of the yellow school bus strike. I suspect the typical parent who has the time and a car would drive their kid(s) to school. I myself did that occasionally when the bus didn't show up, whether because of mechanical problem or something else. I would give a few kids at the same bus stop a lift, too. But for the strike, I decided it's time that my son actually rides the subway to and from school. With the spate of bad news in the subway, about people being shoved onto the track etc, I played safe and accompanied my son to and from school. At least for a few days. The subway trip does conflict with my running schedule. I used to just watch him off on the bus then started my running routine. (Once I even "raced" the bus to school and beat it. It was not a fair race since the bus, back then, made many more stops to pick up more students whereas I ran straight to school using the most direct route.) Not only that I now lose a little time in the day, I would also lose potentially $2.25 x 2 for the round trip. Hmm, what would a runner do? From past visits to the school, or just the school area, I know the distance is about 4 km. I typically run 8 km a day. I know, I'll just run home after dropping off son at school! And save $2.25, too.

Running straight home would get me just 4 km, so I added a few side trips. From the Holocaust Memorial in front of the school I headed for Kingsborough Community College's Shore Blvd. gate. I would have loved to cross Sheepshead Bay via the footbridge, but it was still closed for repair post-Sandy. After KBCC, I inadvertently went into the dead-end Pembroke Street. I wouldn't mind running back out, but it turned out it was only dead-end to cars. There was clearly a narrow public sidewalk connecting Pembroke to Oxford. From the Oriental Blvd gate of KBCC, I headed for Manhattan Beach. It has been a while since I last visited the area so I wanted to see what's news. Instead of going into the park area, I went along some street and ended up in the parking lot of MJHS Adult Day Health Care. There was a fence to separate the health clinic (?) from the public park but by the waterfront the two properties were only separated by low rails. There was no use getting into Manhattan Beach Park though, as I could see that the area was under construction. Most, if not all, the roads were blocked by sand fences. A bulldozer and a dump truck were busy on the small beach, moving sands perhaps from elsewhere back to the beach. Looping back to Oriental Blvd I saw a sign that declared Manhattan Beach officially closed. Disobey the sign and you'll risk getting summoned by NYPD! I hope this is only because of the repair/renovation work and not a seasonal thing for the area. I can recall how painful it was to find free parking space in the area, during the summer, because all the streets were off-limit during weekends and holidays. Perhaps someone is not happy to only keep the undesirables out of the area during the summer, maybe they should not get to enjoy the park in the dead of winter as well. Just a wild idea I conjured up.

After running the length of Oriental Blvd, it was time to get back to the eastern end of the Riegelman Boardwalk, aka Coney Island Boardwalk. For a second, I thought the boardwalk was off-limit to the public, as there were orange construction net seemingly blocking access. I was wrong. The boardwalk was still open on the eastern end, albeit it was a smaller opening. I haven't run along Stillwell Avenue in a while, so instead of getting off the boardwalk at West 8th Street, I went for Stillwell. Just a little over the creek, I ran past the picket line of bus drivers. They were asking "When do we want job security?" and answered the question themselves with "Now!" That brought me full circle to the whole situation, interesting.