George Lucas on Community College

 

“I wanted to race cars. I didn’t like school, and all I wanted to do was work on cars. But right before I graduated, I got into a really bad car accident, and I spent that summer in the hospital thinking about where I was heading. I decided to take education more seriously and go to a community college.”
Kingsborough Community College as seen from Dead Horse Bay, Brooklyn

How Kingsborough looks from Plumb Beach.

This  photo is from the view at Plumb Beach in 1974 as the new campus at Kingsborough  rose from the sand and landfill.

Originally an island,Sailors stopped by  as early as the 1800s, perhaps snacking on the beach plums that gave the island its  later name.

Then it was called Hog Creek and various temporary shantys were used by people who lived there- the inlet separating it from the mainland was filled in during the late 1930s.

Since 1972 it has been a part of The Gateway  National Recreation area.

In May and June, Horseshoe crabs climb onto the beach to mate. The beach is often subjected to heavy beach erosion, as incoming storms often blow large amounts of water up the Rockaway Inlet past the beach into Jamaica Bay. Plumb beach was recently cleaned up and tons of sand added by the Army Corp of Engineers following Hurricane Sandy.

In the summer, the beach attracts kiteboarding enthusiasts (many of them FDNY), as the southerly sea breeze makes the area ideal for this use- you can see them often from the college, even on the coldest days.