Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Rome Journal: The Nassau Coliseum





Everyone goes to Rome to see the ruins. There are of course the famous sites like the Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla, but  lesser known ones dot practically every neighborhood. If you journey to the outskirts near the Borgata or public housing built in the Mussolini era you will find a splendid contrasts between the juggernaut of machine age uniformity and the grandeur of the past, in Aqueduct Park. Still Rome gives you pause. Anywhere else you go ruins provoke a totally different response. Ruins are a sign of war and poverty (and indeed even the much touted remains of the Eternal City testify to the Fall of Rome). Tourist buses don’t pull up in front of the burnt out sections of Detroit. There are no headsets offered for those who intend to explore the favelas of Rio and come out alive. There's plenty of dilapidated housing, broken down theaters and defunct stadia to discover back home in the U.S.A. Why go all the way to Italy to see ruins? Why not go to the newly renovated Nassau Veterans Memorial Colisseum which used to be the home of the Islanders and the Nets before they moved to Barclays center, if you want to experience the past? Talk about archeology, the once glorious home of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Ebbets Field, is now a housing complex and if you want to see real ruins go up to the Catskills where only ghostly memories remain in the spots where grand resorts like Kutsher's, Grossinger’s and the Concord once reigned supreme.

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