Daylighting aBrook in the Bronx
October 31, 2024 at 02:30AMIn this thoughtful essay for Broadway, the editorial arm of Pioneer Works, Emily Raboteau writes about Tibbetts Brook, an underground stream whose historic pathway lies beneath her Bronx home. Throughout the piece, Raboteau touches on New York City’s climate crisis, describes the restorative efforts to “daylight” or unbury the waterway, and shares how the local community has used art and creativity to engage with the area’s riparian habitat and history.
What is the memory of water? Is this captive chapter just a blip in the long life of the brook? Or might the brook be angry, like a poltergeist deranged by degradation, indignity, and concealment? I mean, does the brook hold a grudge? Has the brook been dreaming of freedom, attempting repeated escape? What are the brook’s rights? I don’t wish to anthropomorphize, but how do we match our repair work to the level of harm that’s been done, not to mention, to the soul of the brook?
The city increased its grid. More new people, more buildings. More buildings, more land. More land, more new people. These people. My God, did they bungle the hydrology. They preferred their land dry, and hardscaped the watershed to spread and build, driving the brook underground. For over a century, it has remained hidden, in the dark.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/10/30/daylighting-abrook-in-the-bronx/
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