Category: <span>Brooklyn Life</span>

By Keith Olsen Red Hook was once a place where men disappeared into black cars with drivers hired by the mob, boys hit Spaldeens that bounced between cobblestones, the docks teemed with longshoremen, and a tall metal pyramid, where sugar was refined, loomed in the background. Stories have long been told about the harbor community,...

By Matthew Kelly Standing over her garden, Joyce Dixon leaned down to weed the soil, tending to her patch of young tomato plants. The summer air was thick and sticky with 90-degree heat. Dixon stood up to wipe the dark skin of her brow, she shook the dirt off her t-shirt and gave a smile....

By Kelly Boyce Monica Parfait, a 16-year-old immigrant from Haiti who attends Paul Robeson High School in Crown Heights, had never met any member of the neighborhood’s large Jewish population until Herb Weitz.  A secular Jew aged 76, Weitz entertained Monica with stories of his rebellious childhood, telling her how he and his friends used...

By Jennifer Jenkins When the batter popped a fly ball toward right field, Larry Glick, alert and ready in the outfield, was pretty sure he had a handle on it. And on any other diamond he might have made an easy catch. But playing on the Leif Ericson Park baseball field, Glick lost sight of...

By Keith Olsen Rita Pellicano, a lifelong resident of Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, regularly took the B71 bus: to see her doctor, to go shopping on Smith Street, to attend social events. She only had to wait for it to come, and then get on and off at the right stops.  Now, the B71 line...

By Kristofer Ríos Last summer Mahmoud Farraj worked his first job as an assistant engineer at Lutheran Medical Center through the Summer Youth Employment Program. The 15-year-old, who lives in a small Sunset Park apartment with his parents and three siblings, enjoyed working because he had money to buy the latest video games without depending...

By Shlomo Friedman On a scorching day in July, it was easy to see why Misim Fortanov thinks the Breakers development on Emmons Avenue in Sheepshead Bay is the best place to live in Brooklyn.  Even as the rest of the city was sweltering under 95-degree heat, the deck by the Breakers, facing the cool...

By Danielle Hester When Betty Bogan opened the front door of her mother’s apartment for 17-year-old Mushky Bruck, the aroma of fried chicken flowing from the kitchen struck Bruck’s nose. As she continued down the narrow hallway that led to the kitchen, the portraits of Bogan’s southern African-American family, draped on the walls, created a...

By Laura Marsan On a hot June evening on the track of Betsy Head Park in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, Coach Chris Legree spotted a 15-year-old boy running toward him without a cotton undershirt beneath his purple football jersey. “You need cotton to absorb the sweat,” Legree said, his voice rising above the elevated...