Jake’s in New York on business and sent me this e-mail yesterday which I found really interesting and shows a glimpse of how brilliant my brother is.
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Fun things about working in New York. I am working in a pretty historic part of Brooklyn, Bedford-Stuyvesant, where Bobby Kennedy planted seeds of our current fight against urban decay in the 60′s (tied to civil rights strongly). Specifically, I am referring to the creation of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation – the nation’s first community development corporation (CDC). CDC’s, at their best, are the engines of the revival of our nation’s urban neighborhoods.
I am also picking up little cultural tidbits. This is the neighborhood where Chris Rock grew up, and the scene for Do The Right Thing, and Jay-Z’s public housing neighborhood. Wikipedia has a pretty exhaustive list of these connections. The history is even more interesting. The main commercial drag, Fulton Street, once had several large theaters including an Apollo. There are gobs and gobs of interesting history that google can help you dig through, especially if you are a fan of cities and city neighborhoods.
This blog post started as an email to Nick, inspired when I recently stumbled on a gem from a Billy Joel song:
From ‘You May be Right’
Friday night I crashed your party
Saturday I said Im sorry
Sunday came and trashed me out again
I was only having fun
Wasn’t hurting anyone
And we all enjoyed the weekend for a change
I’ve been stranded in the combat zone
I walked through bedford stuy alone
Even rode my motorcycle in the rain
And you told me not to drive
But I made it home alive
So you said that only proves that I’m insane
I suspect that line probably resonates with a lot of folks in New York today. It’s a gem to me because the neighborhood, by my observation, no longer reflects that sentiment, tone, in full. My view may not be shared – indeed some neighborhoods will spend decades fighting old perceptions. I just found it interesting to find some way to relate to that line in the song.
The truth, by the way, is that the neighborhood is still in many ways in transition. It is fair to suggest the tone of the line being in the song has truth today. It’s tough to say more succinctly so I will leave it with a few pictures. The pictures to me are most telling. The retail on these street scenes may not represent the types of stores you and I shop at on Saturday errands. Nonetheless I think they do a good job illustrating that for whatever challenges, Bed-Stuy is no longer the ‘nation’s biggest ghetto’ as it had been known as at points in time.
Some neighborhood blogs with varying perspectives:
http://www.bedstuyblog.com/; http://bedstuybanana.blogspot.com/; http://antbed.com/
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I’d always wondered what that lyric meant but I wouldn’t have thought there would be much behind it. I really think this sort of thing is interesting. This was a brief post, but Jake this is his area of expertise and he’s able to expound on underlying and related topics in a way that you can relate.
He also included one, two, three, four, five pictures.
For my 2 pence, I can only offer a demo of the Beastie Boy’s ‘Hello Brooklyn‘. Just as appropriate as Billy Joel considering the source of this post.
(later edit 2:00 am 8/3, Jake left me an excited voice mail today saying he found a beer that actually tastes like bacon. This world is good.)