Comments on twin city sidewalks: Other City Sidewalks: Babylon NY

"The Village" we called it.I spent all of my summe...

2009-12-07T15:29:17.062-06:00

"The Village" we called it.I spent all of my summers there as a kid.We had a bungelow at 13 East Court down Fire Island Ave.Smittys Fishing Station was at the head of our canal and I* worked there cleaning 40 wooden skiffs every weekend.I loved all the kinds of boats and the cranky outboard motors of those days. I remember Austins "snuff box", so orange and fast.

Obviously you limited your walk to the southeast p...

2008-04-10T08:15:00.000-06:00

Obviously you limited your walk to the southeast portion of the Village. IF you had taken the time to walk the shorter distance west, you would have discovered Argyle Park. This park has a playground,lake,boat slips, gazebo,running/walking trail, and plenty of benches to read your book.

Heading NORTH you would have found the Park Avenue tennis courts, handball wall, playground, and footbridge to Southards Pond.This park is one of the most pristine sites with horse,bike,and running trails, as well as a fresh water fishing spot. There are also plenty of Rental Apts on Park Avenue which are a stone's throw away from the Downtown Village and the LIRR. While this may not be Minnesota, we have a ton of recreation here.

Wow, you really don't seem to get Babylon Village,...

2007-11-30T14:56:00.000-06:00

Wow, you really don't seem to get Babylon Village, do you. I live in town and love it. I moved from Brooklyn after too many years of cramped spaces. To me, the Village has "just enough" of everything for me to offer a very balanced experience between small town and more urban offerings. I think that to measure it in terms of how urban it is misses the point completely about why people live there.

I was pretty startled/amused/bemused to come acros...

2007-08-24T17:24:00.000-06:00

I was pretty startled/amused/bemused to come across this critique of Babylon. My parents had a store on Deer Park Avenue during the 50s and 60s, and they had a house in the Village after I finished high school (in NYC), so I knew the place pretty well (though I haven't been back for 30 years).

I don't think it makes sense to examine its "urban" characteristics, because it's not really an urban place. It's a fishing port, a former resort (you used to be able to catch a ferry to Fire Island or Oak Beach) and a commuter suburb. As a suburb, its core developed before Moses built his parkways and expressways, so it's fairly compact, unlike postwar sprawlburbs.

I don't think its useful to look at Babylon through the lens of Moses' biography. It's true that he lived there for a long time; he moved there because it was a convenient commute on the LIRR (as you may know, he never learned to drive). But he didn't participate in the Village's life, and he wasn't particularly popular, and the publisher of the Babylon Leader, the local newspaper was one of his fiercest critics.

In the end, his influence is probably more visible in the former potato fields that suburbanized after the war, than in the village that had its character formed before he got there.