One of my favorite things about exploring Brooklyn is discovering neighborhoods where time seems to stand still. Conspicuously absent are the neon signs of mobile phone stores, the suburban sameness of fast food joints, shiny new cars and boutiques. Corner bodegas still feature their original throwback signs. Brooklynites of a generation past reign their front [...]
May 12, 2010
Sometimes it feels like my experience exploring Brooklyn is an exercise in taxonomy; I must travel along the grid of orderly city blocks, observe the careful landscaping of stately co-ops, respect the dignified stoops of uniform brownstones. I feel compelled to catalog my surroundings and file them away neatly. But lately what has drawn my [...]
May 6, 2010
As anyone who’s stepped foot in the borough can tell, Brooklyn is a constellation of neighborhoods, of people, of ethnic diversity. Though the identities of each neighborhood are constantly in flux, documenting them is great fun. Before this past weekend’s meetup, I certainly had my own preconceptions about Brighton Beach. While some of them rang [...]
May 5, 2010
As temperatures rose on Saturday morning, I couldn’t help but get excited for our monthly For the Love of Brooklyn meet-up! As planned, I scheduled my day to meet out at the famed L&B Spumoni Gardens pizzeria in Gravesend at 2:30pm and down a couple of Sicilian slices before venturing out into the streets of [...]
May 25, 2010