Confessions of a New York Tourist in Brooklyn

These days when someone comes to visit NYC, they’re as likely to want to go to Brooklyn as Manhattan. I grew up in Queens and when I was a little kid, we almost never went to Brooklyn unless it was on a class trip. First because even though they share a 21-mile border, it was nearly impossible to get from one borough to the other in under an hour and a half. Second, I was a kid in the 80s. The idea of Brooklyn as a social and cultural hot spot in NYC was inconceivable back then.

Now, I can’t imagine my New York life without Brooklyn. Cutting school to go horseback riding in Prospect Park. My sister getting married in Ft. Greene Park. Seeing Jack White play the Warsaw. Beating my ex-boyfriend in Ghosts and Goblins at Barcade (Petty? Yes. Satisfying? Beyond). My first time seeing the Egyptian exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. A slice from Di Fara’s, a perfect pint of Guinness at Hartley’s, a knish at Gottlieb’s, cheese cake from Junior’s- the food scene is obscene. Record shopping at Rough Trade, catching some sun and a ride at Coney Island, watching the Nets at the Barclay’s Center, taking in the view from the Brooklyn Bridge on Sunday mornings…

I could go on because there’s a lot to talk about and even more to experience. Brooklyn isn’t just the coolness of the hipsters in Williamsburg or the hustle you see in downtown. It’s the fishing village of Sheepshead Bay, minor league baseball by the Atlantic Ocean, and the unity of the Brooklyn Liberation rally for black trans lives. It’s where kids still play stickball in the street that only halts for the occasional call of “CAR.” It’s all this and more because of the millions of people from Red Hook to Bushwick, Bay Ridge to Bensonhurst. It’s a world class city inside the world’s classiest of cities. Just make sure that when you come, you venture past Brooklyn Heights.

- Donna B

Donna's in our marketing department at SNAPS. A hard-core New Yorker, she's come around on Brooklyn later in life - boro pride is no joke (what up, Queens?).