What’s up with that?

Q What’s up with the black obelisk on the northeast corner of Ocean Parkway and Avenue U in Brooklyn? We pass it every day and always wonder what it’s for.—Jack Weinstock, via e-mail

A The mysterious tower, which stands about ten feet tall, isn’t an obelisk but an air vent for a sewer pumping station, built in 1915 and unused since the station was renovated in the 1980s. “I wish it were sexier than that,” says Kevin Walsh, the brains behind Forgotten NY (forgotten-ny.com). “They’ve redone Ocean Parkway throughout the years, but somehow it’s remained.” Longtime Brooklynite Oscar Israelowitz researched it for his Flatbush Guide, published in 1990, and said that the ornate cast-iron tower’s main M.O. was to “get the bad aromas out.” (Like Walsh said: not sexy.) As for the vent’s future on the Parkway, Mercedes Padilla, a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, says the DEP is looking for a way to preserve the historically significant leftover—questionable aromas notwithstanding.

See previous What’s up with that?