More Southern Brooklyn

With tentative plans to move to Queens in the not-too-distance future, I've been trying to fill in the walkable gaps around where I live now. The last one took me down through Flatbush, across Avenue L in Midwood through Bensonhurst to Bay Ridge. It was really just for walking, not for doing Census Tracts, but as it happened I picked a route that knocked off another 13 tracts I hadn't been to yet. We ended up at 86th and 4th in Bay Ridge at my favorite little Greek Place - Southeast Corner, check it out.

I'm going to miss hoofing around Southern Brookyn once I get to Queens - there's very few places in New York I feel as at home in as Flatbush - but I'm sure I'll find somewhere to comfortably amble on restless days.

Neighboorhoods: Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, , Brooklyn, Midwood, Flatbush, Ocean Parkway. Tracts Walked: B136, B182, B186, B198, B200, B202, B204, B206, B272, B274, B276, B430, B432, B452, B454, B536, BB760, B762, B764, B766

East Flatbush

A lot of times a walk's just a walk, and not really through an interesting area to boot. Most of my time doing this project isn't spent walking fun places like tunnels and bridge tops. Still, they're part the city also, and I've made a commitment to myself to write them up too. But don't expect too much if it isn't labeled "interesting" or "favorite." It's mostly for myself.

A few of these nondescript walks lately have been through East Flatbush. Flatbush Avenue has always been kind of a demographic dividing line in New York - Downtown Brooklyn from Ft. Green, Crown Heights (or Prospect Heights, depending on what year it is) from Park Slope. As this line fades north of Prospect Park, it remains to its south. The bustling Caribbean neighborhoods by Church Avenue, the shabby old Victorians of Ditmas Park, the hodgepodge immigrant area by Newkirk, the neat rows of houses of the Orthodox Jews in the lettered avenues, all of this generally gives way to a kind of nondescript, somewhat rundown area once you get east of Flatbush Avenue that I have yet to find anything interesting is, or even get a real feel for at all. I haven't yet walked all of East Flatbush, so maybe this will change, or maybe it's just been the moods I've been in on the walks. Holy Cross cemetary (a pretty standard Catholic cemetary) is the only thing that really breaks it up. The end of the neighborhood is also home to the oldest house in New York, which is worth a visit.

Neighborhoods: East Flatbush. Tracts walked: BK 788, BK 790, BK 792, BK794, BK 824, BK826, BK 828, BK830, BK832, BK834, BK838, BK840, BK846, BK848, BK850, BK852, BK854, BK856, BK936, BK942.

Flatbush

It's - well, it's Flatbush. Brooklyn. Not much more to say. A combination of Flatbush, Ocean Avenue, and various side streets to take me south to DiFara's. Dense, bustling on some streets, with various business typical of the not-so-rich parts of the boroughs and large apartment buildings; quiet, beautiful old Victorian houses on others, dirty light industrial areas on other thoroughfares. While this might seem a bit of a conflicted neighborhood, the general feeling of comfortable shabbiness holds it all together. It's Flatbush. Neighborhood gets less Caribbean and more orthodox Jewish further south, but there's always at least little pockets of everybody. The area around the Newkirk Avenue Q-stop pretty much is the neighborhood is microcosm. I hit DiFara's to discover they've raised their prices and the line is out the door. Forget it. Unfortunately it's Saturday. That means nothing else is open in this neighborhood. I continue on South, finding an interesting little Turkish area down Coney Island Avenue and King's Highway where I grab a bite. I feel nice, comfortable, relaxed, at home the whole walk. It's Flatbush.

Neighborhood: Flatbush, Ditmas Park, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Prospect Park South, Madison. Tracts Walked: B798, B796, B508, B510, B514, B518, B520, B764, B762, B532, B534, B540, B542, B554