14 Days of Goodbye Gratitude, Day 13: Today is for Brooklyn. I moved here on August 21, 2005, and literally the first thing I did that evening was to hop on a shitty used bike my new roommate had arranged for me to inherit and pedal around the borough like an elated madman. I didnt know where I was going — I just followed the current of the one-way streets and sudden shifts in grid patterns, and my instincts. As you can maybe see from the annotated map (the very first thing I ever posted online from NYC, on my short-lived blog — this was pre-Facebook), I rode from my place in Kensington through Borough Park (here there be Jewes), Bensonhurst, under the Verrazano, then up through Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, South Slope, Park Slope, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, up to Williamsburg (which for my money is the least Brooklyn part of Brooklyn, contrary to popular conception), and then home again via a different route that apparently took me through the Navy Yards, Brooklyn Heights, and Cobble Hill. I was in love. And I still am, nine and a half years later. Ive often said that if Brooklyn was in Iowa I would happily live in Brooklyn, Iowa. Manhattan is a theme park—a thrilling one sometimes, but at the end of the day I want to go home to a city, a neighborhood, a block, some trees, and some people who know what it means to relax just a little. I love Brooklyns diversity, its geography, its parks and cemeteries, its colliding street grids. I love driving in Brooklyn, riding a bike in Brooklyn, and most of all, walking in Brooklyn. Ive covered nearly the entire borough on foot and wheels, including far-flung areas like Dyker Heights, Brownsville, Ridgewood, East New York, Canarsie, and Cypress Hills. (I even walked all the way to JFK Airport once, kind of by accident, kind of on purpose — and thats in Queens, so I went beyond Brooklyn that day.) Some of the best restaurants Ive ever eaten in are in Brooklyn — certainly the best pizza and the best Italian food, and also Palestinian cuisine, barbecue, Mexican, and much terrific beer. I wasnt born here, or anywhere near here, but I will always consider Brooklyn home, and when I find myself missing New York, its Brooklyn Ill be missing the most.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 18:00:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015