Tania Damiano- Activity #2- Visit Some Place

So I did not get a chance to visit where I wanted in Brooklyn, but I went to Brooklyn regardless. My friend’s family opened a new bakery (La Boulangerie Lopez)
on 5th ave, between 18th and 19th street, (Windsor Terrace), so I decided to drop by. I got myself a delicious Marvel Latte with two awesome chocolate pastries and sit near the window to watch street activity. It was around two o’clock on a Friday afternoon, and the street was as busy as I had expected. There is an elementary school just a few blocks down and a charter school right across the street, so young kids and their parents were walking up and down the sidewalk, in and out of the bakery. But what I want to mention is how the different the buildings of the mass of businesses and residential houses are. It is such a mix of antique and remodeled creating such a great feel in the neighborhood. Although it has a predominantly White population, Windsor Terrace has a noticeable population of Hispanics accentuating the feel of the neighborhood. By the bakery however, most buildings appear to be run-down and old, giving a false impression of the area being an “unsafe” area, as Jane Jacobs would say. But it is not at all. In “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” she points out that once she was waiting for the bus and someone out of the window of a building yelled out at her telling her that the bus didn’t stop there and gave her directions of where to go. She also said that in an ocassion, there was a little girl crying and making a scene in the street, and ‘everyone’ from the stores and buildings around them saw, and looked at them, as if to protect the girl from a pedophile or kidnapper (even at the end it turned out it was her father). I saw this in action while looking out the window from the bakery. As the busy street 5th avenue is, the feeling of community is very strong, as people look out for one another while crossing the street, being kind as a man was when a woman, about his age, dropped something while passing by him and picking up the bag and library books she was carrying with a smile. I felt it was the same feeling of community I get in my home neighborhood, Maspeth. I felt comfortable being there. Yeah, I know it’s not “dreamland” or a perfect world in Windsor Terrace, but the mistaken impression some people get of certain areas of Brooklyn are just plain wrong. My friend offered to go with me when I mentioned to him that I was going to go there because he said that it gets dark out early and that “Brooklyn it just not safe.” I turned down his offer because of his five last words. Not safe? NOT SAFE? What do people even classify as safe anymore? A lot of people on the street? No people on the street? Run-down commercial and apartment buildings? I was not sure what he meant and I didn’t even ask. The point is, Jacob’s prespective on “Mixed-use development” comes into play in this area. There are many different building types, commercial, apartment buildings, houses, schools, all jumbled together in one neighborhood. I feel this makes it very “home-y” and a successful place to live because everything you need is just a few blocks away.
I enjoyed my stay at La Boulangerie Lopez and being able to spend time at a different neighborhood. I haven’t yet figured out if the neighborhood felt so comfortable for me because of it’s structure and kindness I saw, or because it reminding me of the nieghborhood I live in. Either way, I will go back sometime soon because I liked it there. Oh yea! And Prospect Park is just a couple of blocks away!!