Floyd Bennett Field campers who are way better dressed than us. Flickr photo courtesy of Sam Utne.

A group of our friends has an annual late-spring (pre-mosquito) tradition of overnight camping at Floyd Bennett field in Brooklyn every year. (Yes, this is the place where some newspaper reporter incredulously roughs it for a night each year, because, Fuggedaboutit, you can actually go camping in Brooklyn???, only to discover that it’s pretty much like camping anywhere else.) In the past, our friend Matt booked one of four gargantuan plots for $50 a night, where a bunch of people could pitch tents and nobody was within farting distance of someone else’s.

This year, it’s a whole different scene, owing to the National Park Service’s long-term goal of transforming the underutilized bucolia into a mini-Yellowstone. Those big plans are already underway. (more…)