South Beach Miami ? Florida? A broad avenue to ten lanes on the sides of which there are palm trees in bloom? low houses and stores of all kinds, especially Hispanics? Everything seems to be, but nothing is. We are in the midst of a huge urban area of \u200b\u200bnorth -Atlantic Coast, specifically in one of the five boroughs of New York, Queens. The broad avenue above Queens Boulevard is the very long road that starts from the Queensboro Bridge (bridge that connects Manhattan with the district) and which cuts half of all the borough, dying on Main Street, right at the far east of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The Queens is a neighborhood that gave birth to the NBA champions such as Ernie Grunfeld, Ron Artest, Kenny Anderson, Lamar Odom, but has never been widely recognized as home to the great New York playground. Maybe the (alleged) little charm that the neighborhood basketball, being inhabited by many ethnic groups that basketball does not have a great affinity, like all Asian ethnic groups (especially Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese) and as the immense strain, especially in Hebrew Rego Park area. Then the fact remains that when it comes to the New York street basketball, there are very few times when the Queens emphasis is appointed by and ecstasy. The most famous and renowned playground of Queens Lost Battalion is undoubtedly the Court, on all maps of the geography of street basketball world. So yet another trip from downtown Manhattan, in search of lost playground, this time in the direction of Queens, in a really hot day. Herald Square subway you can take the orange V, and Times Square you can take the yellow line R, both in the direction of Forest Hills (where they carried out until the end of the seventies the U.S. Open tennis before moving to Flushing Meadows) 71st Avenue, down, on both lines, the stop 63 Dr-Rego Park. As I said, coming down out of the subway car, get on Queens Boulevard (Mind you, just at that point, because for example, near the Queensboro Bridge Boulevard is narrow narrow and poorly attended) and seems like we (in a hot sunny day like that) in Florida, is a tutt 'one. Blaspheme to say, I know, but that's the feeling I had on that very wide highway to ten lanes in the hot sun, with nothing to 'horizon if not several small buildings on either side of the avenue. The indications I had were very clear, from the subway station, two blocks west on Queens Boulevard, and had the Lost Battalion. Believing to walk towards the west, I head east unusable. Very bad. Two, three, five, seven, ten blocks, no trace of a playground, and no trace of even a little park with a bit of 'grass and with a bit of' shadow where to put my members hot. I am in a district where 90% of assets are medical, dental offices, clinics, nursing homes, and where 99% of physicians, dentists and therapists are Russians and Jews. Objectively, it does not seem to be in an area characterized by the presence of a well-known playground, and then began to ask around some explanation. Nobody can tell me where can be the Lost Battalion, ask any person who does not even know what I'm talking about. At the same precise moment when I realize that I have started walking on Queens Boulevard to the east and not towards west, I see from 'the other side of the street two guys that are right for me, loose clothing, bandana up to his eyes and swaying walk. Block them and asking them questions, they confirm that I cordially Lost Battalion is about a mile to the west. Already a sweat soaked back on my feet along the boulevard of broken dreams, trying to take advantage of very little shade on the sidewalk. Way, way, way, and finally arriving at the Lost Battalion, which is in the middle runs between 62nd Avenue and 62nd Street, on the right side of Queens Boulevard to the west. Loved the Lost Battalion, well kept green grass, benches without graffiti, playground clean and tidy, a makeshift pitch softball in the middle of the field, truly a green oasis in the neighborhood, beautiful. Too bad there is no trace of a basketball court. Ya Kiddin 'me?!? I ask anyone in the neighborhood, even the mailman who passes by. Nothing, the playground basketball there 'is. C 'is the gym, in the middle of the park (where it also plays a renowned tournament), is open until five, you can play in, but I refuse, absolutely against my ethics to shut myself up in a street baller gym to play, I want to cement. Once before I made the 'mistake of going to play in a gym (Lloyd Hall, Philadelphia) with the mentality of the road, resulting in a kind of alien because of my strength and vehemence, then this experience I do not want anymore. Sitting disconsolately on a bench in the Lost Battalion (at least they are all 'shade of a tree), I see a guy on 62nd Drive on rollerblades with a tank top 4XL Iverson, maybe he can give me an explanation. The block and ask 'Where is the ballers and Homiez be found in the area. Him, not even eighteen years old, his face lights up the season that his father 'son on the bitter things in life, including puts a hand on my shoulder and says: "man Fellaz .... aren' t here ....". With a strong aptitude for drama and with a perfect sense of "drama", this homey tells me where is the best known of the playground area, or a couple of blocks north. I set out, step to the grocery store parking lot behind the Lost Battalion and end up at Junction Boulevard, another main artery of the district, which extends to 'La Guardia National Airport. A couple of blocks north, in the midst of series of well-kept middle-class homes, finally I find a playground, a field in gray asphalt without a net around him, where he is playing an intense game followed by a fifty spectators. Lost Battalion or not, finally started my morning by street baller. Daniele Vecchi, Playground in New York
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