People Feel Very Strongly About Awnings

1st St between 4th and 5th, for example

This doesn’t happen very often, but today, stoops are literally making headlines (in the Metro section, but whatever). Those aluminum awnings so common all over Windsor Terrace and Greenpoint? Apparently they’re out, a general casualty of gentrification and/or changing (improving? degenerating?) tastes.

With characteristic poetry, the Times waxes nostalgic for the awnings of yore:

Small metal awnings and their translucent cousins were once a staple over stoops across New York City, on houses made of brick or clad in vinyl, and even on brownstones….They provide shelter as you fumble for your keys in the rain, and they keep snow from collecting at the top of the steps.

But not everyone is in mourning for a simpler and better-covered era:

“You’re never going to go on Craigslist and find someone who’s looking for a vintage 1950s fiberglass or aluminum awning,” said Jonathan B. Held, an architect who lives on a street in Greenpoint that is speckled with those overhangs. “They are despised.”

(Tell us how you really feel, Jonathan B. Held!)

While the article mainly focuses on more awning-saturated hoods, Park Slope — especially closer to 4th Ave — has its fair share of stoop-coverings, too. So what do you think? Are you pro-awning, or are you happy to see them take their place next to dinosaurs, the W train, and affordable rents?