Brownsville

The photograph displays a busy morning on the streets of Brownsville. Everyone looks as if they are in a hurry to get to work. They all seem to be studying their own business and not aware of each other. Among the pedestrians in the photo you can see two nurses; one going and the other coming from the nearby Brookdale Hospital located a few feet away. The streetlight controlling the traffic looks old and about to fall on the lady’s head as she slowly walks across the cross walk. There is an old flier still stuck unto the streetlight’s post that no one has cared to take off. The one vehicle in the picture is patiently waiting on the lady to cross the street so he can make the right turn. You can hear the exhausted vehicle crying from all the years of use that its owner had put it through.

Fair enough, every image in the photograph is eaten up by the building in the background. The building is not made of the beautiful cobblestone bricks that were once used years ago but it looks as if it has been through a rough patch in its life. It looks residential from the white curtains visible through the broken windows however it could also have been part of the Brookdale Hospital. The old fashioned air conditioners stuck in the windows are lifeless and needs to be replaced. The building itself needs a lot of repair starting with the ground floor. The glass walls are out of date, broken and dirty. The metal panels above the glass walls are rusted, discolored and dangerous; because it could fall at anytime and cause serious damage to the pedestrians walking below.

There is no garbage bags piled up on the street. The street looks as if it has just been cleaned and the garbage can on the street corner emptied. All of which are signs that the street sweeper and the garbage collectors have already been out early this warm and sunny morning, tidying up the streets of Brownsville. The picture shows a typical scene of the Brownsville neighborhood.