Fort Greene

Brooklyn Treasures 

Yesterday, we finally made it to Brooklyn (as you may remember, this was on my to-do list) and we were pleasantly surprised. We visited Fort Greene, a beautiful area with rows of brownstone houses and charming, little restaurants surrounding the Fort Greene park (or rather Mount Greene, it's quite a hike to get up there!). 

We had a delicious burger at The General Greene, a restaurant recommended by my colleague who lives in this neighborhood. Afterwards, we browsed the Brooklyn Flea Market, trying to resist to urge to bring home beautiful and kitschy antiques. 

We did buy one thing: a US travel guide from 1955 - very appropriate since we'll be leaving soon on our road trip through the US. New York City is also covered in this 1950's travel guide, and the author's essay (Frederick Lewis Allen) on NYC is very amusing, moving and also confrontational. Such as his remarks on black Harlem for which he uses a different, nowadays politically incorrect word, which reminds me that only 50 years ago, the world looked quite different.

The author also criticizes: "There is much in New York that is ugly. A good deal of the city was built of brownstones in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and if there is anything more hideous than a long block of chocolate-colored houses with high front steps and curlicued moldings and massive, overhanging cast-iron cornices, I don't know what it is." The irony, these days New York is loved for these typical brownstones - people pay millions of dollars to own such a house!

But I do agree with the author on the following paragraph. In fact, I couldn't have put it any better myself and it makes me very sad to think I will have to leave this beautiful, amazing city:

"If you would look for what is really typical for New York, [...] look at the famous metropolitan skyline, for this cluster of soaring pinnacles is the very symbol of American aspiration. The view from almost every window or uptown hotel will give you the same sense of looking at the embodiments of an imagination which has defied ordinary common sense. Especially at night, the spangled effects are among the wonders of the American world. New York specializes in producing extraordinary effects with light. To see what it can accomplish, don't miss the gaudy dazzle of Times Square of an evening. But to see what delicate and unearthly beauty the city can convey without such premeditation, go rather into Central Park at dusk and look at the bank of skyscrapers along Central Park South. In the half-light they don't in the least look like the abode of human beings, you seem rather to be staring at a fantastic illuminated backdrop designed by a wildly imaginative artist trying to suggest the glitter of heaven. "