Somehow it failed to cross my radar until a few days ago that Fresh Direct moved its Queens Borden Avenue headquarters to the Bronx. The entire building was demolished. In addition to the building the enormous Fresh Direct LED billboard, one of my favorite things in New York, is another casualty.
From images I find online there does not appear to be a sequel to this billboard at Fresh Direct’s Bronx location.
Now I wish I’d made at least one video of that screen. The ads, blasting 24 hours a day to drivers on the Long Island Expressway and anyone unfortunate enough to live nearby, seemed guileless to me, and impossible to ignore. I would not have wanted this thing outside my bedroom window but as an occasionally-encountered piece of urban furniture I found its sheer enormity uplifting. I wanted to stand as tall as this thing.
I just happened to have been in this area a few times the past week, as piece by piece the enormous structure comes down. It might be gone completely by the time I pass through Borden Avenue again.
I briefly dated a woman who shared my fascination with this thing. We spent part of one date night sitting in my car on 51st Avenue, watching the unspeakably enormous ads cycle past, until we started to detect a pattern in their appearances. They mystery of these impossibly huge ads was at risk of being lost, so we skedaddled.
