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An Avocado Tree Grows in Brooklyn

By Anne Naughton

CASTLE: Two Bedroom Apartment in Turn of the 20th Century Row House.

LOCATION: Prospect-Lefferts Gardens in "Victorian Flatbush," Brooklyn.

OCCUPANTS: Nathan Alvarez (first year Civil Engineering student at CCNY) Delphine Selles (Program Director at French Institute) Thelma & Louise (cats), Tom & Chloe (doves) & several fruit flies.

COMMUTE TO CCNY: D train from Prospect Park to 125th, switch to B or C local to 135th, walk through the park.

Per my in-depth research fashion, I made sure that I arrived in your neighborhood early to stroll around. When I left the neon of Flatbush Ave. and wandered down the wide sidewalks of Maple Street, the brick attached numbers gave way to big houses with porches, yards and grounds with hedges. I asked some fellow parking his car "who lives in the big house?" He said "some Doctor." Then you gave me a historical fact-jammed walking tour and totally sank my strategy to surprise you with interesting facts about your own neighborhood. But I remain determined, for the readers' sake, to ask probing and revealing questions. So, who lives in the big house?

(Nathan) Probably a doctor. The area is mostly Black middle class. The mansions are in the area called Lefferts Manor. When the Lefferts family's architects designed this neighborhood, they thought it would be good to have the prosperous people at the center of town to exert a good influence on the people who lived on the outskirts. Because it's a historic district the area has stayed basically the same since it was built.

I understand that the Block Associations are really strong and they had you take down your anti-death penalty poster.

(Nathan) Yep. But they also got rid of the drug dealers. This area used to be high crime. They put up chain link fences and started patrols and now it's wonderful. (Delphine) We used to hear shots at three o'clock in the morning. (Nathan) That was just from the nightclub. They shut that down. (Delphine) It's strange, it's a really nice neighborhood: lots of families & kids. Then at three o'clock in the morning we would hear shots. (Nathan) Not anymore. (Delphine) The Carnival also runs right through here. (Nathan) Some storefronts down Flatbush Avenue are called costume museums and people are just in there sitting behind sewing machines making costumes year round. (Delphine) You can see people practicing their routines in their backyards on Saturday nights.

This is how everyone in New York should be able to live. Your apartment is huge and affordable. The garden in back has monstrously bushy basil plants and tomatoes too. You have wooden floors, high ceiling, big front windows and lots of houseplants including an avocado tree grown from seed. The fruit flies add to the calm, tropical feel.

(Nathan) Sorry about the fruit flies, I'm composting.
While we're on the subject of winged things, it's exciting that visitors can leave your place knowing that this is what it sounds like when doves cry.
(Delphine) Sounds like pigeons. (Nathan) Actually, pigeons are doves. Scientists don't distinguish between them. (Delphine) They're white pigeons. (Nathan) Large Columba forms are called pigeons, small Columba forms are called doves. (Delphine) Nathan has the answer for everything.

I think you both must know everything. Your dining room wall is lined with books: tons of Marxist lit and smatterings of Nabokov, astrophysics, anthropology, and, my favorite, Back To Basics, The Readers Digest's bible of do-it-yourself American crafts.

(Nathan) In the ten years since I left high school 'til now this has been my self-education. If I wasn't reading a book I would be going insane.

So what brought you to CCNY after 10 years in the labor force?

(Nathan) I had it good working for the NYU Medical Center. After five years I had four weeks vacation and full medical. I was doing a McJob: bussing tables & cleaning up garbage. And $13.71 an hour is nothing to sniff at. I had benefits the average American only dreams of. But the intellectual challenge was not there. If your day-in, day-out life is just serving people their mashed potatoes & their gravy & their watered down soup and meanwhile your head is full of ideas for new train systems, new modes of transportation, housing... (Delphine) and figuring out the 10th dimension. (Nathan) I'm only at five. (Delphine) I stopped at three.

When I told someone I was interviewing you, she said, 'Oh, the table guy?' What drives you to sit in the NAC Rotunda and distribute political information?

Well, when I first got here I didn't have a clue what to do with myself between classes. I used to walk down to Riverbank Park on top of the sewage mill. (Delphine) And then you figured out 'I can table!' (Nathan) Then I met up with some International Socialist people who were doing stuff on campus. It's important to get people involved. (Delphine) And you're a socialist. (Nathan) And I'm a socialist.

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