The patron saint of all wayward Brooklyn tourists says her mission has been accomplished.
Roslyn Beck, the Brooklyn Heights woman who has spent a decade making and installing her unique directional guides in and around the long-hidden Brooklyn Bridge footpath, said this week that the city has finally gotten it right.
“I’m out of the business,” said Beck, after checking out the long-overdue signs, map and new lighting that now greet tourists on the DUMBO side of the fabled bridge.
“They look lovely,” she said.
Beck’s praise for the city finally puts her on the same page as local officials, whom she said long neglected the area underneath the bridge, allowing it to remain dark and uninviting, with no more than an outdated, graffiti- and sticker-covered map to greet the money-spending out-of-towners.
To compensate, Beck hung her own signs that pointed bridge pedestrians to major tourist attractions such as the Promenade and historic Brooklyn Heights.
She faithfully replaced the signs “every two years” or so, she said — unlike the city, which was eventually shamed into taking greater action.
So now, Roslyn Beck can finally put down her toolbox.
“Now my work is done,” she said. — Marie Cunningham
