The Neighborhood

We just went for a jaunt to get ice cream. Some observations:
--in that little time when it's twilight but not dark enough for the streetlights to be on, you can see fireflies in Brooklyn.
--people are really excited when there are fireflies in Brooklyn, since I saw both kids and adults exclaiming and chasing them.
--3 kids were using a corner garbage can as a basketball hoop, while a few guys on the street coached them.
--4 men, in their mid-20's, were kicking beanbags, drinking beer, and proclaiming this their "championship round."
--ice cream is a good remedy for intense humidity (which, rather delightfully, the local news refers to as the "frizz factor.")

I am living in the Crown Heights neighborhood, one street over from the Prospect Heights border. The above picture is a mural I particularly love, which is located about 2 blocks from the apartment. The flag above her says, "the higher we climb, the further we can see," which is great, as are the other parts of the mural:


(maybe I'm just a sucker for murals.)

Prospect Heights/Crown Heights is an interesting place, since it's a mix of delis, restaurants, schools, churches (including a particularly large and lovely Catholic one a few streets away), and residential brownstones and apartments. My neighborhood is solidly working-class, and I'm also a mere 15 minute walk from the Botanic Garden, Prospect Park, Brooklyn Museum, and the main branch of the Public Library. I actually first heard of Crown Heights in a sociology class 3 years ago, which I forgot about until last week. We talked about it because there were 3 days of riots here in 1991, stemming from an incident where an African-American boy was struck by a car driven by an Orthodox Jewish man. The boy died, and later that evening another Jewish man was killed by a gang. David Dinkins was mayor at the time and apparently acted stupidly and things got of control and then Rudy Giuliani got elected 2 years later and Saved New York City From Itself (that was sarcasm). Regardless, it feels safe here.

And, according to wikipedia, Frank McCourt was actually born on the street where I'm living now, and since Frank McCourt has just died and I'm feeling nostalgic, here's a closer from Angela's Ashes: "I don't know what it means and I don't care because it's Shakespeare and it's like having jewels in my mouth when I say the words."

Goodnight, friends.