Brooklyn By Bike

Over the summer, I lost my social security card by stupidly carrying it in my wallet and then dropping the wallet on a curb. I canceled everything else in the wallet immediately, opened new bank accounts and finally got a new license over Christmas, but never got around to replacing the SS card. I recently discovered that Planned Parenthood offers health insurance on a sliding scale, and as I haven't had insurance since leaving Boston (the cheapest plan available in NY for me is $200/month with a $10,000 deductible), I scheduled an appointment to get more info. In order to apply, one must bring every document ever made about oneself, including a social security card. So I needed to get a new card.

Well, out of all the cities in this entire country, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Brooklyn are the only ones that refuse to accept applications by mail and demand everyone go to the office. I set aside a warm, sunny Tuesday morning for the trip to the SS office, which I discovered was located in Fort Greene, about five miles away. Biking was in order.

I started my bike ride in Greenpoint, my new hometown full of Polish immigrants, and biked through Williamsburg, my old hometown full of hipsters. Bedford Ave continues far further than hipster central, and once it crosses Broadway takes on a completely different mood. Government buildings, abandoned warehouses and factories spewing smoke lined the streets. Every single pedestrian was dressed in traditional Hasidic Jewish attire, and all the signs were in Hebrew. The few stores that were open, scattered amongst long deserted buildings with graffiti and broken windows, were all delis or Jewish clothing stores. The streets were full of potholes, and the entire scene reminded me of post-WW2. It looked like some violent group had come through, throwing bricks at windows and trashing the streets, leaving only a few stores untouched. Then life continued... the remaining factories went back to smoking, the delis went back to meat-slicing, but no one ever fixed the damage.

About a mile later, the pedestrians became less Hasidic and much more gangsta. Within another half mile, the sidewalks were lined with shops selling hip-hop cds, baggy jeans and Baby Phat shirts. I saw the biggest Goodwill ever, along with dozens of 99-cent stores and quite a few Caribbean and African restaurants. Music blasted from the shops and the smell of fried chicken permeated the air (some type of chicken restaurant was literally every few storefronts). The pedestrians at this point were predominately black, and they watched me bike passed them with looks of honest confusion. No one was mean or rude to me; in fact, one person gave me very friendly and perfect directions. But he also asked me what I was doing out there, in a tone not like, Get outta my hood, but more like, Your people stay in the other side of Williamsburg, what brings you this way? Also, biking was horrendous because of the road conditions. It felt like there was some line drawn on Bedford Avenue and repairs only go so far because before the line is richer and whiter and therefore deserve better roads. Everything in this area was run-down and of much lesser quality... the parks, the houses, the schools. It was all a lot to take in during such a short bike ride.

As I got closer to Fort Greene, art galleries and boutiques began replacing the discount shops, French bistros and cafes replaced the soul food. The roads contained fewer potholes and the buildings were much more repaired. Then it started pouring rain and I got soaked in the course of two minutes, walking into the office with dripping hair to learn that the line was two hours long. I had way too much time to ruminate and analyze everything I had just seen while simultaneously freezing because, for some reason, big, industrial fans were blasting air full speed onto all the wet people standing in line.

Main conclusions: this is not a new phenomenon and it happens everywhere (didn't I just write an entry about gentrification and disparity in Mexico?). But even though people are aware of these issues, the situation is not changing but worsening. And the population I worry for the most are young children. As I biked through the main strip, I kept thinking, "What do kids do here?" The parks were in poor shape, and there was nothing else geared toward kids. Only rusty, broken swings and slides to entertain an entire neighborhood? This is exactly why kids do drugs and get in fights. There's nothing else to do and they're very rightfully angry. My next big thought was, "Why can't we combine elements of different cultures into the same neighborhoods?" Yes, there are tons of ethnic restaurants in Wburg, and Greenpoint is a great example of cultures blending. I love that I walk down the street and hear at least three different languages, but it's obvious things aren't perfect, even if somewhat diverse. I have friends who would love a hip hop record store. And we all dig on huge Goodwills and awesome 99-cent stores. I really believe it's possible to blend many different cultures into one neighborhood. But when looking from the view of huge realty companies and big businesses, it's not beneficial to combine various classes and races into the same areas. In order to win at the capitalist game, these businesses need people with money to move into the areas that are being developed and the people without money to leave. This typically translates to, white people in and people of color out.

But what do we do? I always complain that I have zero black friends, but I'm not gonna bike into Clinton Heights and be like, "Yo sistah, I need a black friend!" I don't meet black people when drinking at Spike Hill, I don't meet Latinos when watching indie rock at Trash Bar. I can definitely reach out more... I can go back to that Goodwill and go out to more hip hop shows. But how much is that changing? Our country is the center of capitalism, and class and race are so intertwined that as long as we're trying to be the richest country in the world, we will also be wildly segregated.

Please share your thoughts, comments and ideas. This is a topic I think of often, and I believe that having open discussions on such issues is the first way toward changing them. Please disagree with me or argue with me or say what you relate to and why. Let's talk!