2 Train - Sterling St. (Day 10, stop #429)

Out:  This intersection here is pretty quiet, with not too much activity.  There are a few small stores around, including a pizzeria, Kennedy Fried Chicken, liquor, nail salon, 99¢ store, but the neighborhood looks largely residential.  On one side of Nostrand there are large brick tenements (see photo) while on the other there are smaller brownstones and row houses.  

It’s actually an interesting contrast.  The neighborhood is still mostly black, with maybe one gentrifier and a few Hispanics around.

In:  At the end of the platform here, there is still some of the strange large-tiled station wall, similar to the local stops on 4^th Ave.  For most of the platform, though, everything still looks quite good, with mosaic tiling with a burgundy background and blue border on the station name.  The top of the wall has larger brown tiles with a yellow, blue, and green border and an “S” on a burgundy background.  The light, though, is a bit dim and flickering, giving a little more dingy feel than other stations along this lie.  The setup here is two opposing platforms and two tracks.  There are blue-grey columns by the platform edge.  There actually is a small mezzanine here, along with some artwork that look like abstract scenes in red and green; but then I realize that they are framed paintings by local kids.