I have not spent much time in East Flatbush lately or even over the years; in fact I used to bicycle through more frequently when I lived in Brooklyn. Once again, it’s on my list to do more exploration in. Till then, there’s Google Street View. Today’s subject is a set of somewhat overlooked lamppost-stoplight combinations on a business-oriented stretch of Avenue D between Albany and Schenectady Avenues (which stand in for East 41st and 47th Streets).
I don’t have the exact date but I believe they were installed by a local business improvement district with the cooperation of the Department of Transportation either in the late 1970s-early 1980s, and look like nothing installed in New York before or since with the exception of the “shoeboxes” still in use on the east end of Church Avenue. Some are lamps only, some have stoplight masts that extend over the street. They originally employed white street signs (which bucked the Brooklyn color scheme of 1964-1984, white letters on black). As you can see, the DOT ignores them and has installed modern green on whites. Until the early 2010s, the business district of Jamaica Avenue east of Parsons Boulevard employed the same make, with some minor differences. By 2013 they had been replaced by retro versions of Triborough Bridge poles. These Avenue D poles, though, seem destined to hang in for the long term, rust be damned, as they have been equipped with new LED lamps.
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