From the Hole to the bowl!

Roar! Today was such a weird day. I decided to ride out to this neighborhood between Brooklyn and Queens I heard about. It's called the Hole and it is with out a doubt the worst neighborhood in New York City. It looked like an asteroid had hit this place! You can see what I mean in this satellite image:


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I couldn't believe a place like this existed here in NYC and I just had to see it with my own eyes.

This is the first street I rode down once I crossed Conduit Ave and rode down into the Hole.

There are a ton of abandoned lots that are now completely overgrown.

There were also a bunch of burned out and abandoned cars littering the streets. It was like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.

The neighborhood is called the Hole because it's 30 feet below grade and floods every time it rains. I guess that's why a bunch of people in the area all seem to own boats. They need to get around somehow.

Of course since the Hole is 30 feet below grade that means it isn't on the septic line. So every time it floods it just turns into one big cesspool. Here you can see a puddle left over from the last time it rained. Gross!


I decided to leave my mark on this abandoned trailer in the middle of one of the overgrown fields.

After all the riding I did to and around the Hole I was bonking pretty bad. I decided I needed some serious carbs if I was going to get back home so I headed over to Spring Creek for some pasta.

Oh yeah! The Olive Garden, no better place for cheap food! Luckily, they were having their unlimited pasta bowl special so I ate my fill and kept riding.

Roar! Check out this awesome Meat Sauce 2X Combo!

After lunch I rode around Spring Creek park a bit before heading home. The original Spring Creek was right on Jamaica Bay but now it's a protected nature reserve and you can't go in. They did build a small new park by the shopping plaza with the Olive Garden that has a nice bike trail. It also appears to have the only regulation cricket pitch in New York City. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's kept in very good condition. I doubt many people will be hitting sixers at this cricket pitch.