Are we in Kansas?

It feels like a tornado is about to send our little home into Oz!! My landlord suffered leaks and now some pretty strong winds are pounding against our windows. Ahh the pitfalls of living near the ocean I suppose.

Grinch mood

Hard to get into the spirit of things when there are finals to worry about... This has nothing to do with Gravesend but I felt like sharing.

Holiday Spirit in Gravesend

Dubious Herstory

Apparently the house that stands on 27 Gravesend Neck Road opposite Gravesend Cemetery is Lady Deborah Moody's. I find it hard to believe that the house could survive hundreds of years when the neighborhood has changed so much and the house itself has passed through so many hands. I found this New York Times article from 2003 reporting on the current owners trying to give the home historical landmark status. I tried finding something more current but I guess the petition never made it.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E0DD113CF931A35750C0A9659C8B63

Slow news month

Every time I log on to this site I keep seeing the same bit of news about that love triangle gone awry. Isn't there anything else that has been happening in Gravesend?

Cinema history in Gravesend

I was curious to know what studios were in the area after I read the New York Times story (see previous post) and I found an article on Vitagraph Studio which existed more than a hundred years ago. It was acquired by Warner Brothers in the 1920s and today is the Shulamite School for Girls. Across the street on 1268 East 14th Street is JC Studios, built by Warner in the 1920s as well. Today As the World Turns is filmed there. Technically the area is not Gravesend, I thinks its Midwood but its pretty interesting. For cool photos and a more in deph look check the site out.

http://www.editorsguild.com/v2/magazine/archives/0506/features_article01.htm

"If you're thinking of living in Gravesend"

This is the title of an August 16, 1986 feature in the New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEFD61039F933A2575BC0A960948260

Some interesting facts listed:

- School children corresponded with children from Gravesend, England and they even exchanged basketball teams.

- Bill Cosby filmed a television show on East 1268 East 14th Street.

- One family homes sold for $200,000!

Interesting to get a glimpse of the old neighborhood.

Sahara Restaurant

I came across this review in New York Magazine of this Turkish Restaurant in the hood. http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/sahara/. I can't wait to visit or order takeout from them. By now you probably figured out I am not a cook, which is why I thought living in Manhattan was perfect but Gravesend is turning out to be full of surprises.

For nerdy amateur historians

Like me, a perfect gift could be the Gravesend Brooklyn: Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay by Eric Ieardi. This would of course be part of a large collection of gifts not the sole gift for this Holiday season.

Ch-ch-changes

Everywhere I look I see condominiums rising which is all fine and good for Manhattan but here they are a sore sight. They look like giant bullies squeezed in next to one family homes.

Useless trivia

According to the New York Times City Room section the cheapest price for a quart of milk (only 99 cents) can be found in Gravesend. Must be the influence of all of those 99 cents stores.

Snowy day in Gravesend

Wow it actually snowed on the first day of December.

Christmas decorations for under a buck

I love the 99 cents stores that seems to be on every corner of Avenue U. They are the best places to get a bunch of Christmas decorations without breaking the bank and you don't feel too bad if one or two breaks by accident. I do wonder how all of these stores can co-exist practically right next to one another.

Sleepless in Manhattan

During the Thanksgiving weekend I decided to spend a night at my parents apartment in midtown Manhattan. My takeout Italian dinner cost me nearly $40, which came as a shock after getting used to paying only half for food in Gravesend. Why was I eating takeout? My family doesn’t cook, not even for Thanksgiving. But the worst thing was the noise! It was kind of difficult to fall asleep when I could hear every single conversation going on in the street, even though I was on the third floor! Since my parents live near a lot of bars the flow of people did not really stop until dawn. Next time I leave a bar I will be more considerate of the neighbors. Then every person that walked up the stairs seemed to shake the very foundation of the 100 plus year old brownstone. I haven't lived in Gravesend for a long time but it sure didn't a long time for me to get accustomed to a much simpler and quieter kind of lifestyle.

How come nobody thought of this before?

I was happy to read today that Brooklyn now has The Small Building Part which will handle landlord/tenant disputes in two or three family houses living in the neighborhoods of Gravesend, East Flatbush, Sheepshead Bay, Flatlands and Canarsie. Those of us who live in buildings with less than four housing units are not protected by rent stabilization regulations and are often faced with numerour problems that come from living in the same building as the landlord. Its good to know that now there is a place where things can be settled without the need for lawyers.
Check out the story in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=4&id=16811

Coney Island Woes

This weather reminds me of summer which reminded me of Coney Island. Lo and behold an article today from the The Brooklyn Paper about the opposition to Mayor Bloomberg's plans for the now defunct amusement park. Now I don't know much about his plans so I can't say anything positive or negative. It does look like Coney Island will be shut down for years to come until somebody figures out what to do. NYC summers just won't be the same without Coney Island.

Gravesend Jockey Club

Check out this New York Times pdf article from 1887 and 1899 about the Gravesend racetracks.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9406E6DB1730E633A25755C2A9639C94669FD7CF
and
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E05EFDF1530E132A25750C1A96F9C94689ED7CF

More pictures of Gravesend

But I didn't take them. Since I am not around much during the day and it would be creepy to take photographs at night here is a link to someone else's pictures of avenue U.
http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/bigmap/brooklyn/gravesend/avenueu/index.htm

Of condos and houses

Yesterday I attended an open house at a new condominium just for fun. It is located on West 9th St. between Avenue U and V. This two bedroom (really a one bedroom since the second bedroom looked more like a small office) second story apartment came with every imaginable amenity including central heating and grantite countertops. It wasn't very big but it was pretty nice and better yet, the maintenance fee was a low $175. How much for the apartment? A little over $400,000. The real estate agent also represented a house a block away which was selling for over $520,000 but it needs some repairs. It is so strange to me to have a house and a condo have only $100,000 difference in between. All units except for two in this building are already sold.

The telephone was not invented in Gravesend

That happened in Staten Island. This memorial located on 12th Street and Avenue U in Meucci Triangle commemorates the orginal inventor of the telephone Antonio Meucci.

Real Estate

I can't believe it's already November. I have not gotten the chance to post blogs as often as I wanted. There are papers due and exams to study for. And even though lately I have been home only to catch some shut eye I couldn't help but notice how many houses are going up for sale. I can only imagine this is a result of what is happening in the housing market nationwide and it is sad to see so many families affected by it. On the other hand as a renter I am interested in someday becoming a homebuyer so I have been eyeing certain houses with interest....

Gravesend, England

The news articles that appear on this site are supposed to be about Gravesend, Brooklyn but more often than not a piece about Gravesend, England will creep in. This always remind me of the immigrant heritage of this neighborhood.

Trick or Treat!

Since I wasn't able to do much this year for Halloween due to it being midterm season I decided to treat myself by attending the Haunted NYC: Gravesend Cemetery event hosted by the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation this past Sunday. Located on Gravesend Neck Road and McDonald Avenue Gravesend Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in New York City and it is never open to the public so it sounded like a great idea to get a tour of it, even if it was at night time. I arrived prepared with a flashlight at 7:00 pm sharp and was greeted by a large crowd of about fifty people all waiting to get inside. Word had sure gotten around about the event! The park ranger in charge was already there and was busy getting everyone to sign in. When this was done she opened the gates without much ceremony and we followed her to the center of the cemetery. The actual cemetery is not very big but since it is not crowded with occupants (or at least gravestones) it was quite easy to walk around without tripping on anything. The ranger let us to the center and once we had all surrounded her in a circle she proceeded to flip through some printed pages for quite some time looking for a story to tell... This was no tour of the graveyard but rather a ghost story telling hour which would have been fine except the ranger tended to read the stories as if she was in class giving a book report. Maybe she should have rehearsed her stories in advance. Needless to say once the excitement of being in a cemetery at night had worn off the event didn't have much else to offer. Bored, I started to flash the light at the gravestones curious to see if I would recognize some historical names. Being nightime and having poor eye sight I started moving away from the crowd to get a closer read. Unfortunately there was no hint of any ghostly apparitions and most of the gravestones I approached had been wiped clean by the elements. I did see next to a stone that someone had left their lighter behind. After about ten minutes of this there was one angry ranger (who in all fairness had asked people not to wander off) who told me and several other people who had followed in my footsteps that we had to leave. And that was that.

Reeling in the neighbors

I just spoke to a friend who is considering moving to Gravesend for the cheap rents. My plan of luring people to the neighborhood is finally working! Well it probably won't work on the friend who actually found a cheap one bedroom in lower Manhattan after making a deal with the devil.

Dang!

From New York Magazine's Intelligencer:

"Gravesend: Sears Tower co-owner Joseph Cayre just sold his home here, an enclave of rich Syrian Jews, for $10 million, the second-highest price ever for a Brooklyn crib."

I am not afraid of getting priced out of Gravesend since I literally live on the wrong side of the tracks. It is the east side of the F train that has all the fancy mansions. Since I live on the west side I am safe. For now anyways.

Lookit What I Found

Lady Deborah Moody. A discourse delivered before the New York Historical Society, May 1880, by James W. Gerard.

http://dlxs2.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=nys;cc=nys;view=toc;subview=short;idno=nys001 (You might have to copy and paste rather than click to view it)

James W. Gerard, a U.S. diplomat and ambassador was very taken with Lady Moody. At least I hope I have the right guy. Anyways I have not uploaded the file yet but as soon I have some free time this should make for some interesting reading. (Yes I am dork)

Best Comfort Food Ever?

Chinese takeout of course. Last night (I don't get to see Gravesend much in the daylight) I was walking home resigned to eating whatever I could find in the fridge for dinner when I passed by the Tasty House a Chinese Italian Restaurant on 253 Avenue U (between Mc.Donald Ave. and W. 4th St which was still open at 10:30 pm. The place was actually pretty clean and busy making takeout orders. My Brocoli with Garlic Sauce dinner lived up to the restaurant's name too. Not much was offered in the way of Italian, all the dishes basically were something with spaghetti. Oh yeah they had mozzarella sticks too.

Big Apple Academy

Interesting article in the Daily News today about this Russian-American private school in Gravesend that attracts students from as far away as Queens and Staten Island: http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/brooklyn/2007/10/16/2007-10-16_distance_no_object_for_russian_students.html. The article says that the curriculum is modeled after that of Soviet schools and that even the school lunches are Russian. I still shudder at the memory of those chewy hot dogs and crusty pizzas I had to swallow down in elementary school. Another important factor is that the parents of the kids that attend want their children to know the language and their culture. Good for them. This school is just another answer to our crappy public school curriculum. Being the daughter of immigrants I was always reminded of how schools in other countries are better and now that I work with kids I can't help but agree. On the other hand I am a child of the public school system in New York City and I think I turned out okay. It would have been nice though to have been able to learn to appreciate my cultural roots. I can't begin to tell you how much time I wasted trying to be as "American," as I could be.

F is for Fast

Since it sometimes takes me a long time to get home on weekend nights I am usually the first one to leave parties. That was the case last night but lo and behold it only took me half an hour to get home on the F train. I usually don't take the F because it makes all local stops in the city as well as Brooklyn, which means that there are like 20 stops before it gets to Avenue U. But last night it was on a roll. Shame on you train D and N!

L&B Spumoni Gardens

As the pizza I had for lunch at work sits in a gooey mass in my stomach I think longingly of L&B Spumoni Gardens and their classic Sicilian slices. The restaurant is right on the border between Bensonhurst and Gravesend and its worth mentioning. I know people who live in Jersey and make the trip just for their pizza and their awesome Italian ices. The restaurant has been in existence since 1939 and it is still owned by the same family. The more I talk about it the more I regret my choice of lunch today... Here is their website: www.spumonigardens.com/

Gravesend in The Godfather

But enough moping. GravesEndofBklyn got its very first comment the other day and it came with an interesting tip. According to the post (which can be read in the comments section of "She is a dangerous woemen.") the houses on East 5th between Avenue S and T were used as a backdrop for some scenes in The Godfather. Thank you Nephele. I will take some shots as soon as I can.

No Place Like Home?

When I started this post I'd hoped to become better acquainted with my neighborhood but these past couple of weeks the idea seems like a joke. So much of my time is spent in other boroughs. I am getting to know the MTA train system better than the streets around Avenue U. It is so frustrating when your whole life is centered away from where you sleep. I guess that is what is so great about the city. You are only a couple of blocks from everything else...

The lure of 7-Eleven

Well no matter how delicious slushies are, anything that is DayGlo can't be good. But this post isn't about the food at 7-Eleven it is about the people that the food attracts. When the store first opened (about six months ago?) on my block I was grateful to have that orange, green, and red awning illuminate my path home. I no longer had to half run/walk out of the train and down a dark and deserted block. However now that knowledge of the place has spread it has become the fave hangout spot for lots of different people. The late night drunks who mistake the corner for a bar. Whoever the person is who is just going to go in for a minute and leaves their car parked right on the corner, nearly on the sidewalk. Then there are the teenagers who somehow get a thrill of standing in front of the store into the wee hours of the morning. (I wonder why they don't hang out in the nearby park?) But mostly I just feel bad for them because I remember not having anywhere to hang out either. Do I sound old? Should I even care? After all I do always get home without incident. (Knock on wood). And a late night snack never hurt anyone.

The City

I always found it strange how Brooklyn is part of NYC and yet whenever someone says they are going to Manhattan they say: "I am going to The City." Now I say it too and it makes me feel as if I live way out in the suburbs. But then I remember my three lifelines to NYC: the D, N, and F lines nearby. And if I find myself a bit hungry after a long midnight train ride home? Why there is the 24 hour 7-Eleven and Dunkin' Donuts nearby. Nothing to it.

"She is a dangerous woemen"

Ahh the wonders of Google. I found this Newsday article about Lady Deborah Moody. Like most of her fellow immigrants Lady Moody moved to the New World to escape religious persecution in England. However the life she found amongst the Puritans in 1639 Massachusetts Bay Colony was just as oppressive. She believed in Anabaptism which stated that baptism should only occur when one is an adult believer. This didn't fly with the Puritans and it got her excommunicated. The quote above came from some official who thought she was rocking the boat too much. Along with other followers she moved to New Amsterdam (NYC today). The Dutch were either a little more understanding or perhaps just wanted to get rid of her and granted her her own town patent in 1645, which also gave her and her fellow members complete religious freedom. But Lady Moody did not stop there. According to the Newsday article the first Quaker (another much persecuted group) meeting in the colonies occurred in Gravesend thanks to her invitation. I feel her story is worthy of a book! The Newsday article is much more detailed: http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs304a,0,5912509.story,

People do live here!

I swear! I just noticed that every photograph I have taken has not a living soul in it. LOL. Like I said before I am only around the neighborhood at odd hours of the day but there is life here...

A little bit of Herstory

Gravesenders are really proud of their history and they won't let you forget it. I finally stopped to read what I thought was a WWII memorial and saw this written on the back. I wonder when they will open the time capsule and what horrors from the 80s it might contain. Rhinestone denim jacket anyone?

I heart Pigeons

It feels like ages since I have been able to spend a leisurely morning at home. As I drank my coffee and stared out my kitchen window I noticed a flock of pigeons flying in circles in the sky. I know that is not an unusual sight. What surprised me was actually seeing them all land on somebody's roof where I saw a number of pigeon coops. A man was there feeding some of the pigeons and checking the cages. Apparently my neighbor raises or trains pigeons which to me is pretty cool. I wanted to take a picture but thought better of it. I am not sure if it's legal to raise pigeons and I wouldn't want to get him in trouble. I know to a lot of people view pigeons as just rats with wings but I am a pigeon sympathizer. Every time I see one hurt, if I can, I try to bring it home and help it heal. It's nice to know I am not the only one who admires them around these parts. You have to admit they are the ultimate NYC survivors. So kudos to the roof top man and the lady next door who feeds them like clockwork every morning. Oh and if you heart pigeons too check out this site: nycprc.org/

With Halloween Just Around the Corner...

While doing research about Gravesend Cemetery I found this event on the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation:

Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
Haunted NYC: Gravesend Cemetery
7:00 p.m.
GRAVESEND TRIANGLE
GRAVESEND NECK RD, E 2 ST & AVE V
Category: Concerts, Performances, and Films, Culture and Art, Education, Free, Kids

I am quite a sucker for haunted tours. They are fun and hopefully I will learn tons more about the area.

A forgotten part of history

The first time that Gravesend's history piked my interest was when I came upon a cemetery on one of my walks. It is located on Village Road S. and Lake Street about a block away from the Avenue U stop on the F train. Surrounded by picturesque homes, the cemetery almost takes up a whole block with a few houses bordering it. Through the gates one can see that most of the gravestones have been worn down by time, the most recent ones appear to be from the 1930s. Although not open to the public broken bottles and plastic bags still managed to find their way inside the grounds. Two plaques explain the cemetery’s history. The latest plaque being from 1976. I think it is time for an upgrade. But that is besides the point. I was really struck by the fact that Gravesend was established in 1643! Not only that it was founded by a woman: Lady Deborah Moody. I felt like I had found a forgotten and important part of history.

Sunday Stroll

In between work and school it has been very hard for me to appreciate where I live. Most of my week is spent commuting between Manhattan (where I work) and Queens (where I attend school). I am hoping that this blog will motivate me to take some time out to just walk around and explore the area. Today was the first such opportunity in a long time and I decided to take my camera with me. This shot I took off the Avenue U stop on the F train. Far away you can see the top of the Verrazano Bridge and right below is a great Italian restaurant: Joe's Of Avenue U. I think it is well known. On Sundays they are closed but next time I go I will be sure to copy down the names of some great dishes. Nothing fancy, just good comfort food.

From Hell's Kitchen to Gravesend

Having grown up in Hell’s Kitchen (oh excuse me, Clinton) Manhattan it came as quite a shock to me to realize that I could not actually afford to live there anymore. After failing to convince my parents to move to the suburbs and my husband nixed the idea of paying $1,500 for a closet-sized studio (it’s doable) I grudgingly agreed to settle in Brooklyn, near the second to last stop to Coney Island on the N line, in a neighborhood called Gravesend. My commuting time jumped up to an hour, make that two after 11 p.m., and I waved goodbye to late night takeout. But, having lived here for a little over a year now, I’ve finally stopped thinking of this neighborhood as the end of the world (although friends and family make it seem like it when you ask them to visit) and I’ve started to appreciate all that this working class immigrant neighborhood has to offer: great history, good food and stores with character. So this blog is to you Gravesend!