Greenpoint Rhapsody

Brooklyn, NY 11222

A statue of the Angel of Mercy stands in the center of McGorlick park near my house. A memorial for World War One casualties.

I currently reside in Greenpoint, a neighborhood in North Brooklyn with a bunch of miscreants. It's an amazing place to live, right on the edge of everything. It's the type of collision between different classes and cultures that New York City is faimous for, but which are getting harder and harder to find as the days go on.

Here you have many first generation immigrants from Poland, a thriving latino population, the Irish and Italian families that have been here for more than two generations, a smattering of black families and kids, plus the most recent wave on insurgents, the wave that I'm a part of: hipsters and college students who are too poor (or too wise) to afford Williamsburg.

So here's a place where you can hear an Irish family's story from the bartender who's third-generation, get war-stories from a Puerto Rican Vietnam war vetran, and rub shoulders with hipsters who commute over the river to their bookstore and cafe jobs, all while renting the top part of a relatively new rowhouse from the Polish family that lives on the ground floor.

As you can see, it's a tri-lingual neighborhood. These signs are at a local bar.

Sometimes I detect racism in various forms from the elders and adults, but the truely beautiful thing is that the children don't know any better and they're all in love with eachother. It's a wonderful life.

The streets are full of kids, and commerce bussles on a saturday afternoon. The nightlife is a little tame but on the rise, and due to the convienent location in chic North Brooklyn, petit bourgeois bohemian kicks are only a 15 minute walk away. The churches are beautiful and the tallest buildings around, and there are fine tree-full parks to let your spirit roam free in.

My first trip to greenpoint was as a Freshman. My friend Tina was living there at the time. I remember being taken aback at all the Polish signs and cheap produce. I went there a few times over the course of my college career, but it wasn't until moving there in June of 2001 that I fell in love with the place.

All in all, the unique mix of people, the managable rent, the hot Polish girls, the PFC... it all adds up to a pretty good space to be.