ON a bitter cold morning this month at Brookdale Park here, a few dogs were having a playful time while their owners, shivering in a cluster, chatted about the future of the recently built dog park that is already the subject of a neighborhood dispute.
Minutes after the verdict was announced, clusters of chatting teen-agers quietly strolled along 20th Avenue, the block where a crowd of as many as 40 youths armed with baseball bats and at least one gun had chased four black teen-agers last Aug.
When I visited, tenants were clustered in the garden, chatting around tables and chairs.
Human boys and girls not only tend to play differently from one another — with girls typically clustering in pairs or trios, chatting together more than boys and playing more cooperatively — but, when given a choice, usually prefer hanging with their own kind.
Teenagers cluster under newly installed street lights, chatting on cellphones.
There were clusters of people sitting on the grass, chatting in a low murmur.
The district, shaped like a rough triangle, has industrial blocks, too, where men cluster around cars, tinkering with engines or chatting quietly.
On the sidewalk, three older men were clustered in the doorway of an abandoned building, chatting, watching the game, and hiding from a howling October wind.
Along a wooden walkway, three young Spaniards were chatting in the "reception" area, a cluster of hammocks and fishing tackle strung above a shelf of books on expiring species.
