The station on the Brighton Line (Q train) on Gravesend Neck Road has been named simply Neck Road since its inception nearly 100 years ago. It’s one of the only cases in which the MTA succumbs to local colloquy, since I gather that neighborhood denizens shorten the name almost unanimously, though official street signs dutifully render the “Gravesend.”
The “Neck,” as in my neighborhood Little Neck, refers to a short peninsula, which Gravesend Neck Road once reached, as the neighborhood once consisted of dry land jutting into a swamp.
Incidentally I’m a fan of the recent wave of station renovations, though it seems the ones that really need it like West 4th and Van Alst haven’t been serviced in decades.
5/17/13