Yesterday afternoon, I took another ride into the heart of Brooklyn. What, exactly does that mean? Well, the way I'm using the term, I mean a place where no hipster or white milennial dares to tread. Or, you might say that it's anyplace along the 2,3,4 or 5 subway lines past the Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum stop, or the L (a.k.a. the Hipster Express) beyond the Aberdeen-Bushwick stop.
No, I didn't ride up those tracks! They carry the L train along Van Sinderen Avenue, widely seen as the border between the two toughest neighborhoods in Brooklyn, if not the whole city: Brownsville and East New York. I was on the Brownsville side, where Riddick Bowe and Mike Tyson were born and raised. Meyer Lansky was raised the and started Murder Inc there. Interestingly, Larry King and Alfred Kazin also hail from there.
People often talk about being "on the wrong side of the tracks." That phrase has no meaning here. Perhaps it will come as no surprise that the two neighborhoods have turned out, per capita, more hip-hop artists than anyplace else in the world.
I must say, though, that the drivers I encountered were careful. And a few people waved to me.
Maybe it has something to do with the atmosphere that once prevailed at the other end of the neighborhood:
The East 105th Street station is the penultimate stop on the L line. Until the mid-1980s, it held an interesting distinction: It was the only New York City subway station with a street-level grade crossing. Yes, it had a gate that dropped, bells that rang and lights that flashed when a train pulled into, or out of, the station.
That, of course, meant people couldn't be in as much of a hurry as they are in other places. Could it be that calm driving practices are passed on--genetically?
Oh, by the way, a guy was selling sweet and salty snack foods, and knockoff accessories, from a table. I bought a few snacks, which I gave to homeless people I saw on my way home. The man seemed genuinely happy for the couple of dollars I spent at his table.
