The Bay Ridge Sinkhole

The sinkhole, about an hour after it happened on Wednesday

My neighborhood, Bay Ridge, is sinking.

It's pretty much a fact, and it was corroborated on my walk home from the subway last Wednesday evening.

About a block and a half from our apartment, I saw a large crowd gathered. There were no flashing lights indicating a fire or massive police presence, and everyone was keeping a respectful distance. I was curious, so I went over to the crowd.

What was everyone staring at? A giant, car-sized sinkhole in the middle of the street.

The sinkhole is the second the neighborhood has seen this summer. The first, according to a New York Times article, came at the end of June and was about 60-feet deep. This one was merely 30-feet wide and 10-feet deep.

Workers in the sinkhole Thursday morning

The cause, according to the Times, was a burst century-old sewer pipe. No one was hurt, but workers did spend two hours getting a car out from the edge of the hole.

Construction workers had been expected to fully repair the hole by the end of the weekend; I'm not sure if that happened, but they were still hard at work when I walked by on Friday.