Just as a good lot of us damn Yankees might associate New Zealand with kiwis and koalas, it appears folks down south—way down south—have an equally simplified, if not tarnished view of Brooklyn. A rallying post on that nation’s leading news website Stuff.co.nz, explains the bounty of Manhattan’s borough to the east in a fawning story that opens, “Turn off the TV. Don’t believe the hype about Brooklyn.”
It continues, “Pop culture reinforces an idea to us that Brooklyn is an outpost for the working class and burnt-out Manhattan residents. Witness the dramatic heft given to Miranda’s exodus for Brooklyn in ‘Sex & the City,’ or the rampant us vs. them class condescension bestowed upon Brooklynites by the Upper East Side clan in teen-drama ‘Gossip Girl.'”
The story’s author James Robinson explains that our locale offers “intriguing history, surprising breadth and unique culture. Brooklyn is more major, more important and more historical than you realize.” He points out the borough’s robust population, new basketball team, BAM, Barclays Center, Brooklyn Museum—and the beauty of Brooklyn Heights…
“Brooklyn has a history you should tip your hat to. Truman Capote wrote ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ from a yellow mansion on Willow Street, among the pleasant row houses of Brooklyn Heights that look back over Manhattan. Henry Miller strode the avenues of Williamsburg when it was still a dirty stretch of industrialism, and not the mecca for artistic youth it is today. Before him, Walt Whitman hung around Fort Greene Park, a small gem,” Robinson writes. “The area is embedded with a myriad of small enclaves that bear account to centuries of wildly varying immigration. A walk through Brooklyn’s streets could take in small pockets of shops paying homage to Polish, Russian, Norwegian, Irish and Chinese populations, and only just scratch the surface.”
Overall, Stuff.co.nz’s “NYC’s Big Beautiful Borough” offers several sweeping accolades: Brooklyn is peaceful and pretty; it’s a blossoming culinary destination; it’s fun (“Brooklyn is beset with young people. Many of its areas are awash with the well-dressed frames, interesting haircuts and novelty facial hair patterns of the borough’s artists, young-professionals and students); it’s infectious; and “most importantly, it’s close.
Robinson concludes: “Cap off an evening meal with a walk over either of the timeless Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges, and properly appreciate the way the New York skyline serenades the East River with its towering lights.”
Indeed… How sweet it is!
(Photo: djn-Brian/flickr)
