Brooklyn Morning – Maria Hernandez Park

By Joe Proudman

The sun is just creeping over the buildings down Irving Street on the northeast side of Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick. It’s just past 7:30 a.m. and four people are making their way around the third-of-a-mile pathway that circles the park. It’s a chilly morning and all the joggers, walkers and runners are bundled up except for one man, who is in a white T-shirt and shorts. He runs a few more laps and then makes a quick right to jog down Starr Street. One older man is walking at a medium pace around the basketball courts, doing many laps as he waves his arms in circles from time to time, stretching.

Amber Jimenez, who is wearing black pants with a black jacket, hood covering her head, says she’s been working out for about three weeks now and likes running at Maria Hernandez Park because there are always a few people out. She said that she was able to keep on running through the long weekend, so it wasn’t hard to get out and run early in the morning, though today she says she’s being lazy, running about mile before she heads into work at 10 a.m. Usually she’s able to get in about three miles.

She’s the last one jogging around the path, but more people start to show up the closer it gets to 8 a.m. using other parts of the park. Two men start to hit tennis balls off the large cement walls just across the path from the basketball courts. A big yellow bus turns right off Starr Street and onto Irving Street, and parents with their children cut across the park, backpacks on, heading to school.

The sun has made finally made its way over the buildings and blankets the north side of the park. The only person still walking is the older man on the basketball courts, walking about half of it now, but still circling his arms from time to time.