A/C Trains - Utica Ave. (Day 10, stop #406)

Out:  This stop is right next to some housing projects as well as a small supermarket, but besides that there really isn’t too much to see here.  There are a couple of neglected tennis courts across the street, with weeds growing up through the cracks.  

There is a large, open concrete area directly outside the stop, for some reason; it’s doesn’t seem like a plaza or anything, nor does it have some obvious use.  

One other building around is a large red brick school.  

In general the architecture is just composed of brick boxes and some smallish public housing.  The neighborhood is still all African-American or West Indian, as far as I can tell.  The immediate surroundings here feel pretty desolate, overall, and probably still a pretty rough neighborhood.

In:  Two platform, four track layout with express access here.  The lighting is harsher, with metal staircases going up to the mezzanine level.  The grey tile flooring looks pretty new.  There is a burgundy tile stripe on the walls and “Utica” in small letters on black tiles.  The station is in decent shape overall, and the platforms are nice and wide.  On the exit ramp there are abstract mosaic murals of kids playing on the street, but the harsh orange sodium lamps leave them kind of in the dark and hard to see.  There is a bit of stylistic tiling and metalwork on the grates near the exit as well.