The image of growing up in Brooklyn N.Y. in the 40’s and 50’s was sometimes difficult. On one hand you had a borough of small individual neighborhoods, for the most part a very safe place for kids to play, and grow up. On the other hand, there was this stigma attached if you admitted you were from Brooklyn. You were not considered cultured, all the museums, art galleries, concert halls, opera, ballet, and up-scale restaurants were all located in Manhattan, some considered the culture capital of the world.
In all the old movies, especially the WWII movies, there was always some soldier form Brooklyn NY, usually William Bendix, a wonderful actor who had a very pronounced accent, and was always talking about the “Bums,” of course referring to the Brooklyn Dodgers. So, if you said you were from Brooklyn you were looked down upon in hushed whispers.
Now it has changed into a place where art, trendy stores, and very creative, and upscale restaurants have sprung up. Every week I hear about Brooklyn NY, through newspaper accounts, and of course through the internet, about this transformation. Besides Williamsburg and Greenpoint, the first neighborhoods to become gentrified, neighborhoods like Crown Heights have young people living there and working in the financial market in Manhattan. Even the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, once a very troubled area, has seen a resurgence of new business, and diverse people now living there.
Sadly, to say that Brownsville, where I grew up safe, and sound, is still considered one of New York City’s most dangerous neighborhoods, and remains untouched by gentrification. It was sad to know that my neighborhood, which was safe in the 40’s and 50’s, as I have recounted in one of my books, has gotten worse.
To my dismay, I had a conversation with a woman who went to my high school in 2000. I was eager to ask her about the school. What I learned really depressed me. The high school is Samuel J. Tilden, located when I went there, the class of 59’, in a very upper middle-class neighborhood. What she told me, shocked me. To get into the school you had metal detectors, book bags were checked just like in an airport.
What has happened to our world in just over sixty years? I truly feel sorry for the children, and their parents having to deal with, what seems a madness in our society.
