This past week-end we spent some time with our daughter Emily and her guy, Grant exploring Brooklyn. Emily has lived on the first floor of a brownstone in Brooklyn for almost the entire time she has been in New York City and really loves the apartment and the neighborhood.
I always tell people that walking around in Brooklyn (well all of New York City, really) is like walking around in a movie. Jack and I like all of the trees and think that the brownstones are beautiful. A typical brownstone might be broken up into one apartment per floor and have hardwood floors, high ceilings, tall windows, no elevator and no central air conditioning. There are no alleys so the garbage cans are kept in the front of the house.
Brooklyn is very different from the part of Manhattan where we are staying and the many neighborhoods of Brooklyn each have different personalities, too. Emily and Grant live in a neighborhood called Park Slope which, in 2010, New York Magazine declared New York's most desirable neighborhood. It reminds me a lot of the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago with shops, restaurants and access to some nice open space which is important when you live in a borough with 2.5 million other people!
One of the things that makes Park Slope so special is Prospect Park which is 585 acres of open space that was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead who also designed Central Park in New York City, the Midway Plaisance in Chicago, and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. The park is about 5 blocks up the "slope" or hill from where Emily and Grant live so it is very easy to get to and a nice place to walk, run or just hang out when the weather is good.
On Saturday, we wandered through two neighborhoods we'd never visited before. The first was Brooklyn Heights which seems to be populated by primarily families and is within walking distance of the downtown Brooklyn government complex. The weather was so warm that we sat outside on a bench to drink our coffee. Jack and I were surprised that the streets were so quiet, especially on such a Spring-like day. As we strolled through the neighborhood we passed several converted carriage houses which were the servants quarters for the mansions across the street. We especially loved this house and wished that we could have gone inside to check it out!
Later, we strolled down the hill to the DUMBO neighborhood which stands for Down Under Manhattan-Brooklyn Bridge Overpass. We had a tasty brunch at Bubby's overlooking the water (New Yorkers seem to be really big on brunch) and took some great shots of the Brooklyn Bridge. Grant told us that DUMBO is a place that people move to if they want to live in a loft and can't afford the Manhattan prices or if they are artists, musicians, etc., looking for live/work spaces. For me, DUMBO was a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. I liked the old warehouses and industrial buildings that will probably be converted to more lofts when the economy turns around but I'm too old to live in an emerging neighborhood. Or, too fearful I guess. I want to live in a place that's a cross between suburbia and city living at a price I'm willing to pay. Sounds like Oak Park, Illinois, doesn't it? Maybe not the price I'm willing to pay part.
Jack and I have really enjoyed learning more about New York City and our girls have been terrific tour guides. We only have a few more weeks here and a LOT of ground to cover before we move on. I've attached a link to an article about Brooklyn from GQ magazine for you to check out.
http://www.visitbrooklyn.org/pdf/GQ%20Nov%202011.pdf
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