Brooklyn: NYC’s biggest (and best?) borough
After she graduated from New York City’s Fordham University in 2001, my daughter Rachel ended up moving to the borough of Brooklyn. Since she decided after graduation to remain back East, where she lives to this day, my wife Mary Pat Treuthart and I have to fly back there to visit her and our grandchildren.
Not that we’re complaining. Because when we do, at least once a year, we’re always able to find any number of things to do.
We tend to split time between Brooklyn and Manhattan (I never miss a chance to stop by MoMA). But for me, Brooklyn in particular has become almost a second home.
I like walking around the Clinton Hill neighborhood where Rachel and her family live. I like visiting nearby Fort Greene Park, especially during the summer months when the place is full of sunbathers, dog-walkers, soccer players and the occasional picnicker.
I’ve attended events at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, better known as BAM, including both art shows and the occasional film (it’s where I first saw Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “The Revenant”). And two of my favorite NYC bookstores are Greenlight Bookstore and McNally Jackson Books.
Just for the record, let me share 10 facts about Brooklyn that I, at least, find interesting.
1. If Brooklyn were a city of its own, it would be the fourth-largest city in the U.S. (after the whole of NYC, Los Angeles and Chicago). A 2022 estimate listed the borough’s population at 2,561,225.
2. Until 1898, Brooklyn was in fact a city all its own. That year it merged with New York City in what became known as “the great mistake of 1898.” (Seems some Brooklyn residents resented having to pay higher taxes as much as they disliked losing their community identity.)
3. Not only does Brooklyn have nearly a million more residents than Manhattan (2,561,225 to 1,597, 451, according to a 2022 estimation), but it has 71 square miles of land compared to Manhattan’s mere 23.
4. Brooklyn is named after Breukelen, a city in the Netherlands. This makes sense because it was Dutch settlers who founded it as early as 1645. Breukelen translates as “broken land” in Dutch (which possibly refers to the detritus left over from ancient glaciers).
5. Like many cities, Brooklyn has an official motto: “Een Draght Mackt Maght,” which in Old Dutch translates to “In unity there is strength.”
6. The major indigenous group that preceded the Dutch was an Algonquin-speaking tribe called the Lenape. War, disease and forced expulsion resulted in the Lenape being moved to various western areas, including Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada.
7. The first major battle of the American Revolution was the Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn, on Aug. 27, 1776.
8. Shirley Chisolm, the first U.S. Congresswoman, lived in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
9. The Brooklyn Academy of Music, founded in 1861, is said to be the oldest performing arts center in the country. The original space burned down in 1903, and since 1906 it has been located at 30 Lafayette Avenue.
10. Brooklyn has 30 miles of shoreline. Some of its most popular beaches are Brighton Beach, Rockaway Beach, Pebble Beach and East River State Park.
And, of course, we have favorite places to eat. Graziella’s Italian Restaurant is our favorite pizza place. When they were barely past their toddler years, my grandchildren would stand near the kitchen and beg the cooks for spare pieces of pizza dough. (Then they would hog most of the charred octopus that we would typically order as an appetizer.)
Another favorite spot is the DeKalb Market Hall, an underground food court that offers a variety of different choices, from Katz’s Delicatessen (loved the brisket sandwiches) to the Cuban-flavored El Punto Cubano to the coffee, bread and pastries of Café d’Avignon.
One of the places that I typically hit, though, is Junior’s. Though it’s become a chain, with locations in Manhattan (Times Square) and in Ledyard, Conn., the Junior’s I’m referring to is the original spot that sits at the corner of Flatbush and DeKalb avenues.
Dubbed Junior’s in 1950, though the diner began business in 1929, the place is famous for its cheesecake. The owners modestly refer to the product as “The World’s Most Fabulous Cheesecake.”
Whatever the truth of that claim, when the place caught fire in 1981, people reportedly stood out front and chanted, “Save the cheesecake.” So …
While the dessert is a bit too rich for me, I can’t let the opportunity slip by without ordering Junior’s egg salad BLT (“Hickory Smoked Bacon, Lettuce and Beefsteak Tomato. Served on Thick Cut Challah”). Yeah, it costs $16.50, but it’s worth it.
Brooklyn clearly means many things to many people. But to me, aside from my daughter and her family, it mostly means … Junior’s.