I’ve been wanting to do a post on race, gentrification, and general neighborhood interactions for a while now. I feel like I’ve been in the middle of the debate since moving here. Today is not that day, but this post will probably bring me one step closer.
I moved here four years ago this November. We moved to the middle of Flatbush, near the intersection of Church and Flatbush Avenues for those in the know. We knew nothing about the neighborhood, only that it was predominately Caribbean and had a host of 24 hour fruit stands and fried chicken places on the main drag. My overly cautious mom even got a good vibe from the area and enjoyed visiting me multiple times. She said that the abundance of 24 hour places made it seem safer and heard that I shouldn’t live in Bedford Stuyvesant.
We didn’t pay too much mind to the fact that every store in the neighborhood from the chinese restaurants, to the banks, to the liquor store where you point behind 3 inches of glass to what you want, were bullet proofed. We thought it was a city thing. As we continued to live there and more and more cabbies and co-workers would express dismay at our choice of neighborhood, we became aware that it had a pretty bad reputation. There were occasional gunshots, and helicopters did hover once or twice looking for a local burglar in our back alley.
Other than that we had a great experience living there. We loved the fresh fruit stands, the people out playing dominoes and communing on their stoops, the weird crap people would sell on the street (hammers, clocks, churros, and pillows), and the people you’d get to know on your walk to the subway. I knew everyone from the hot barber at Leroy’s, to the guy who’d give you flyers for T-Mobile. “Graduations Vacations T-Mobile!” I also need to write a completely separate post on the craze that took place the night Obama got elected.
Living there, and now living about a mile up the hill in Crown Heights, also a very Caribbean neighborhood, we look forward to the annual West Indian Day Parade. I love their costumes. I love the jerk chicken and roasted corn. Most of all, I love the chance to show off my favorite areas and to dance in the street with a couple million of my neighbors celebrating where they come from.
Suffice it to say, this parade has a bad reputation. I heard nothing good from my friends, or even non-Caribbean neighbors about the parade. There is an overnight parade, J’Ouvert, the night before taking place from about 3-5 am where steel drum bands roam the neighborhood. I heard that if I went to this parade I would be shot or stabbed and would only see people having sex in the street. So when I moved closer to the route and decided that I could either go or leave town for the weekend, I didn’t know what to expect. What I did see was people of all ages barbecuing on the street, dancing, and staying out on their stoops to watch the steel drum trucks pass. In the essence of full disclosure, I only stayed out until about 4 am, and it may get rowdier after 5. There is drinking, but I wouldn’t say it’s equal to or worse than the St. Patrick’s Day or Mardi Gras celebrations that take place in this city and others.
The parade during the day has an equally bad reputation, though I’d find it more family friendly than J’Ouvert. I do know it gets more crowded as the day goes on and this year that meant trouble. Two places along the route, including one where I was standing two hours earlier had gunfire. Later on after the parade, about 1/4 of a mile from where we live, someone else fired a gun and injured innocent civilians and an officer. I guess the previous night, more people were shot at a barbecue related to J’Ouvert festivities.
I don’t know what possesses people to fire guns in crowded situations, especially in the face of such a heavy police presence. I counted 31 cops on my street in a two block area before and during the parade on Monday. They were spread heavily throughout the route as well. I wasn’t planning on gun violence, but I did feel that such a heavy presence was excessive. I feel terrible for the victims and their families and I definitely want to explore how these people acquired the weapons and why the violence erupted around this event as it has in 2003, and 2005, but I do not, under any circumstances think we should cancel this celebration. I’m also sad but not surprised to hear the usual “most dangerous parade” and “troubled neighborhood” tropes that have become standard.
I’m closing with this article that features the best parts of the parade. Read the comments for some more insight into the offensive way people are treating this. The parade is good. Flatbush is good. Crown Heights is GREAT! In the last two years, it’s gone from being “troubled neighborhood”, to featured in the New York Times and New York Magazine as a real estate up and comer. They even gave part of it a stupid new name “Pro-Crow”. More on that later.
Tags: Brooklyn, brooklyn carnival, Crown Heights, Flatbush, west indian day
September 10, 2011 at 5:55 pm |
I loved your neighborhood when I visisted. Was it the best, no, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. I remember having a feeling that it was a place full of hope and new dreams. I’m glad you’re standing up for your neighborhood, warts and all and whatnot.
September 10, 2011 at 5:56 pm |
Well maybe you don’t know who, lol! I figured it would show my email.