Maize Field

“This used to be a parking lot/Now it’s all covered in flowers.” — David Byrne.

And before it was a parking lot? It was covered in flowers then, too. And if not flowers, then the three sisters: corn, beans, and squash.

At Bergen & Smith Streets, the three sisters grow in Brooklyn, thanks to Christina Kelly. Again in Brooklyn, like they did before it was Brooklyn.

More information about this project and the other site in Canarsie (which is one of our few native placenames) go to Christina’s site and keep up with the blog.

Note to out-of-towners: the sign for this project mimics, even parodies, that found on many construction sites around the city. The “work on this project is scheduled to be completed by” section is usually laughably mis-dated. I love that here it’s “autumn harvest.”

Those big stone blocks have quickly become a place to sit in this benchless burg. An extra block was set up just to the north, to lure the skate-punks who clatter their infernal boards on that corner, and it is already black with wheel scrape.