Photos — Frances Rivetti
Mention Brooklyn to most people not overly familiar with this colorful, complex borough and the Brooklyn Bridge and rows of brownstone homes with their famously social stoops may be amongst the first of the images that spring to mind. I must confess that when friends who've lived in Brooklyn have talked about how big and diverse it is in its neighborhoods, I never really wrapped my head around it.
For not only is the most populous borough of New York City with over 2,736,000 residents, it's also the most populous county in New York State, as well as the second-most densely populated county in the country.
It was time I got to know Brooklyn a little bit better and thanks to my youngest son spending a few months in its midst, I was enthusiastic to make it my second stop on my travels back east, this fall.
This post is second in a four part series of a recent four-city trip to North East Coast. Click here for Part 1 — Boston, if you missed it.
In short, I've since learned, that if Brooklyn were a city on its own, it would be the fourth largest in the United States.
I had absolutely no idea of its scope having spent a mere handful of hours in Brooklyn previously, before my brief September 2021 visit. The first time I set foot on Brooklyn tarmac was a few years back, along with my traveling girlfriend group, The Glampers, one of whom (Jane's) daughter had moved from Brooklyn to Berlin and left her record collection behind with roommates. We'd accompanied Jane on her reconnaissance mission to collect the coveted vinyl stash and explored the Brooklyn Bridge Park, part of some 30 miles of waterfront on an exceptionally sunny November afternoon. I never looked at a map, instead, I blithely followed Jane, who clearly knew were she was going.
This is another reason why it's good to travel solo every once in a while. The people I tend to travel with most are all extremely great with directions, driving, subways, getting us all from A to B without me having to think much about it. I wanted to make sure I still had the travel skills to figure out an itinerary and not get lost or miss my connections. It meant double and triple checking the details a few times en-route and setting my alarm for earlier than is typical for me to allow myself extra time, but I was relieved to find out the travel brain cells are still operational.
I've also been driven through Brooklyn to the airport once or twice in the past from Manhattan as an alternate route to beat traffic in the back of a taxi, but that's about it.
I tend to go back to the start when getting to know a place that's new to me. It's hard to imagine now that bustling Brooklyn was for centuries the Land of the Lenape —“Lenapehoking”, an offspring of the Algonquin civilization that includes present day New Jersey, New York and Delaware, until forced displacement began with European “discovery” of the land, which continued to dispossess indigenous people from their homelands and territories well into the 19th century.
It wasn't much of a surprise to learn then that it was the enterprising, stalwart Dutch that settled western Long Island in 1624 (along with the land now known as Manhattan) and created a village near present-day Brooklyn Heights and the neighborhood know known as DUMBO (an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass).
The Dutch settlers named it Breuckelen after the town of Breuckelen in the Netherlands. Brooklyn is the Anglicized version of the name. New York was originally named New Netherland.
Brooklyn remained its own city for over 250 years until 1898 when it merged with NYC.
A little more historic background for turning back the clock on the metropolis it now is: on August 27th, 1776, the Battle of Long Island (also known as the Battle of Brooklyn) was the first major engagement fought in the American Revolutionary War after independence was declared and also the largest of the entire conflict.
It was here that British troops forced Continental Army troops under George Washington off the heights by the modern sites of Green-Wood Cemetery, Prospect Park and Grand Army Plaza.
Washington, witnessing the fierce fighting at Gowanus Creek from his vantage point on a hill by the west end of present-day Atlantic Avenue, was famously claimed to have declared: “What brave men I must this day lose!”.
Established as a shipbuilding facility in 1801, the Brooklyn Navy Yard would go on to employ some 70,000 people at its peak during World War II. The Navy Yard was then the largest employer in the borough.
The pharmaceutical company Pfizer, known worldwide today for its COVID-19 vaccine, was founded in Brooklyn in 1869 and its manufacturing plant was located in the borough for many years, employing thousands of workers until it was shut down in 2008.
Not fully grasping how far my son would have to travel to my digs from his spot (with five roommates) in Bushwick, I'd booked a bargain (for NYC) introductory rate room for a couple of nights in the newly opened super cool Brooklyn Ace Hotel.
As it fortuitously turned out, all three of my sons were in NYC that same time and after they met me from the train that arrived at Penn Station from Boston, they accompanied me by subway to check myself in and drop off my bag.
At first I wondered if this was a little too stark a location, with a sobering view from my room of a line of people waiting to enter Goodwill on the cusp of Downtown Brooklyn. But there's much method in the madness of the Ace Hotel Group locations and this latest outpost in Brooklyn is no exception. It's super easy to get to it from Manhattan with a subway across the street that provides fast access into midtown. It's positioned near the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which makes sense as Ace hotels were founded in 1999 by a group of music and design loving buddies who envisioned their properties as ideal for touring bands and traveling creatives, complete with record players and vinyl in every room.
This newly constructed 'Brutalist' style building opened in July 2021 and though the staff were still working out some of the kinks during my brief stay, there wasn't anything much more to complain about than a noisy bathroom fan. The Ace is an ideal spot for folk heading to the nearby Barclay Arena for a concert or a Brooklyn Nets basketball game and it's an easy, pleasant walk through Boerum Hill and Brooklyn Heights neighborhoods that lead down to a picturesque waterfront promenade with its stellar views of lower Manhattan. It has three great bars and lots of comfy velvet couches, local art, communal work tables, an interesting garden area and an all-day restaurant.
Dozens of energetic twenty-somethings were playing soccer in the waning sun on the waterfront fields after work as we made our way down to the water front by foot to take in the sights on my first evening. My team-sporty middle son, Luc was envious and wished he'd had his boots on hand.
According to NYfacts.com — almost 40% of current Brooklynites are foreign born and the median age of a Brooklyn resident is 34.7 years. No wonder my British-Italian-American sons (aged 30, 26 and 23) are so at home in its surrounds.
Dominic drove me to Bushwick the next morning. It borders Queens in Northern Brooklyn and has become synonymous with new music and trendy eateries, cutting-edge art and fashion trends. There's a ton of galleries and music venues in the district's old warehouses — and much of the borough’s most popular, contemporary nightlife. This evolving, industrial area is known for its vibrant street art and converted warehouse art studios and indie coffee shops. Dom and his roommates drove across country from San Francisco after securing an affordable short term rental in Bushwick. They're all involved in some form of art, music, fashion creativity and have been happily absorbing the bustling east coast Brooklyn vibe after being at home in the Bay Area for so long during immediate post-grad lockdown.
Once the address of more Italians per square mile than any other part of NYC, Bushwick is home to a thriving Latin community today, as evidenced by the many taquerias, bodegas and national flags.
As for Brooklyn Bridge, a National Landmark itself, I looked to the NYC gov website for facts. "The iconic Brooklyn Bridge connects Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn Heights. Known for its stone arches, the Brooklyn Bridge supports six lanes of vehicles (no trucks) and a shared pedestrian and bicycle path. As of 2018, an average of over 116,000 vehicles, 30,000 pedestrians and 3,000 cyclists travel over the Brooklyn Bridge each day."
The bridge was designed by John A. Roebling. Construction began in 1869 and was completed in 1883. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. In September 2021, a two-way protected bike lane opened along the Brooklyn Bridge, repurposing one lane of vehicular traffic to accommodate the rise of cycling in NYC.
A rainy afternoon walk though Prospect Heights fulfilled my vision of leafy streets with rows of inviting brownstone family homes — pumpkin decorated stoops galore leading to bustling shopping hubs replete with indie bookstores, record and coffee shops and restaurants galore. I love a neighborhood that overlooks a park and we wove our way down to the south end of Prospect Park before heading into a misty and generous green embrace to walk our way back up.
Designed by Central Park creators Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, Prospect Park is a massive 585 acre playground in the center of Brooklyn. Residents and visitors come to the park to walk and cycle, play softball, explore the Prospect Park Zoo, horseback ride, stroll through Long Meadow, treat their four-legged friends to a dip at Dog Beach and, in colder months, ice-skate at the LeFrak Center at Lakeside.
It was fun to picture a time before Prospect Park was created when farmers in the area grazed their animals on the land before they'd be periodically gathered up and sent back to their owners. After the park opened in 1867, farmers were reluctant to change. In 1872 it was reported that some 35 goats, 44 pigs, 23 horses and 18 cows were impounded.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, located adjacent to Prospect Park is a 52-acre botanical garden, that incorporates a cherry tree esplanade, a one-acre rose garden, a Japanese hill and pond garden, a fragrance garden, a water lily pond esplanade, numerous conservatories, a rock garden, a native flora garden, a bonsai tree collection, children’s gardens and several discovery exhibits.
The victory figure that sits atop the famous Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch at the Grand Army Plaza (pictured above) actually fell from her chariot in 1976. The arch was restored, including Lady Victory, in 1980.
Brooklyn Museum was closed on the one day I had hoped to visit. I was keen to see the portraits of Barrack and Michelle Obama by Kehinde Wiley but it wasn't meant to be — another lesson in researching and double checking specific opening days and times and special circumstances before visiting museums and places of interest. I've since read that a few decades before President Obama took up residence in the White House, he lived a half a block from Prospect Park on the top floor of a brownstone on Second Street with a former girlfriend.
The Brooklyn Central Library was open. I couldn't resist capturing this image of a little decked out girl in her tutu despite the rain outdoors. While her mother was busy checking out books electronically she was checking out her fellow library-goers! Curiosity at work.
We headed to hipster Williamsburg for the second evening hours, home of the craft cocktail and vintage threads. It's also stroller brigade central as young families find homes in the area. My oldest son had been recommended Moroccan Restaurant, Cafe Mogador where we were to celebrate Dom's birthday together a few days early. Rocco's friend, Nick is from Brooklyn and his steering us in this direction was a big hit. Between the four of us we ate nearly everything on the dinner menu. The cocktails were terrific too. Make a reservation if you're in the area and take your vaccination card with you as NYC restaurants are not letting you in without one.
I was a bit confused as to what happened to baseball after reading so much American lit in which the Dodgers were as much as a fixture as the Brownstones in Brooklyn. I'm not a baseball trivia contender in any way, shape or form so I had to look up the baseball team that would be known as the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers) and called the Brooklyn Robins from 1914 to 1931, in honor of its manager, Wilbert Robinson. Now I know that National League owners voted unanimously to allow the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers to move to San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively, at the mid-season owner's meeting in Chicago, Illinois, back in 1957. The rest is history and the Dodgers are still making history as I write this. Not that I'll expand upon that here in the Giants kingdom of the Bay Area.
Coney Island—New York City’s legendary amusement district is another iconic borough I've read a lot about but never visited. I didn't get a chance this time either. Coney Island was developed as a playground for the rich in the early 1900s. It grew as one of America’s first amusement grounds and attracted crowds from all over New York. I did, however, discover in my research that Coney Island does boast a minor league baseball team of its own today. The district of the Brooklyn Cyclones also happens to be home to the Cyclone roller coaster (1927) which is on the National Register of Historic Places, also the Wonder Wheel and the Boardwalk that serves as a seaside resort as well as a regular neighborhood. Charles Feltman is said to have invented the hot dog in Coney Island in 1867. The famous Nathan’s was later opened by one of his former employees.
Next door to Coney Island, Brighton Beach (“Little Russia”) is home to the largest concentration of Russian and Ukrainian immigrants in New York. Nicknamed “Little Poland”, the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn (above Williamsburg) just as interestingly houses the second largest concentration of Polish immigrants outside of Chicago.
Bedford-Stuyvesant which sits beneath Williamsburg and beside Bushwick is home to one of the largest African American communities in the city, along with Brownsville, East New York, and Coney Island. “Bed-Stuy” is a hub for African American culture and business and is frequently referenced in hip hop and African American arts. It was first called Weeksville and served as a refuge for many African-Americans who fled from Manhattan during the violent Draft Riot of 1863. Soul food, southern, Caribbean and French cuisine and an all-encompassing sense of community provide Bed-Stuy with its culturally vibrant, small town vibe.
Two days wasn't nearly enough for me to explore Brooklyn, but I feel like I have a much better idea of what and where I'd like to explore in more depth next time I find myself in NYC.
Brooklyn's official motto is: "“Een Draght Mackt Maght.” This translates from early Dutch to, “Unity makes strength.” The motto is emblazoned in the blue and gold borough seal and flag. Brooklyn terrain is mostly flat, making it a popular part of the annual NYC marathon as well as with visitors who may like to take in a few miles at a more leisurely pace.
If You Go:
Amtrak from Boston to NYC took under four hours. I was enthralled to watch the eastern seaboard and its towns and cities go by. The view coming into Penn Station was great too. It was a much more satisfying way to approach the city than by plane.
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