What mystery in those small artefacts placed -so specifically, it seems -  in spots around the city streets.  Next to the 9th Street fence where the rice bag is hanging, you can also see this photograph.  It's sort of a sad little shot.  A memorial of some sort, or part of a missing person notice?

Very different in tone from these small domestic icons are the mural militiamen knocking about the place, courtesy of some local artist(s).  On a side wall of the American Legion building off Third,, abutting the same empty lot where you can find the rice bag and photograph,, is the much more flamboyant figure of a rifleman, installed here a while back.  Given that this general vicinity is the burial site of the "Maryland 400", the regiment that fought off the British in the Battle of Brooklyn (see the commemorative plaques outside the Legion hall, & find out more about this & more of the area in the Forgotten NY 3rd Avenue tour), he seems fitting.

Did the same artist paste this guy on 11th Street some time ago?