Even when I was little Stapleton was still a major commercial hub. The decay triggered by the Stapleton Houses and the methadone clinic weren't obviously terminal yet. Store ran along Broad Street from Van Duzer Street all the way to Tappen Park and Wright Street. The only exception was the towering remnants of the Piels Brewery.
Around Tappen Park on Water Street and Canal Street were tons of stores and some restaurants. It was beautiful.
Well that was over thirty years ago. People like my mom and the equally late Helen Pose struggled against the tide of crime, apathy and the cheapness of the merchants and had as much luck as King Canute.
I went to the NY Parks sponsored Oktoberfest today and it was barely a pale shade of the street fairs and flea markets held there through the early eighties. Sure there's development going on today and few builders are cleaning up some of the decayed buildings but it's not the same and I imagine never will be. I wish them luck but it's just not the same.
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That's the Meadow Brook Dairy building, second from the left behind the scaffolding.
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