Photo Wed: 5/6/09 : Big Gulp! 7-Eleven come to Bed-Stuy!

Now this is gentrification I can believe in:



Bedford-Stuyvesant has joined the ranks of communities nation-wide that can take a short drive to a long list of heart stopping guilt snack attacks.

That's right 7-Eleven has heard from friends that it's not so bad in the 'hood and decided to move in. And it's not one of those wack KFC/BaskinRobbins/7-Eleven Combos, naw, 7-11 was all like,"I feel safe on these streets, I don't need no roommates to walk me from the A train".

I don't know how long it's been there, but um loving it.

Matter a fact, I like the idea of being minutes away from slurpies and homies so much, I've decided to create a new feature of this blog, contrasting my previous "When Gentrification Attacks" feature.

Yep, "Gentrification I Can Believe In" will be a feature that shows I'm neither bitter renter or blissful owner(I'm both). As I've posted I likes my Habana Outpost and never-ending bicycle lanes, but I'm not feeling 50 story glass towers in 4 story neighborhoods and gross appropriations of culture or as is said in Flatbush, "Faking Flags".

And so I raise my Big Gulp and $1 Hotdog, to you 7-Eleven and say ”どもありがとう” (domo arigatou) you great big shadow Japanese company that keeps a never closing light on for us all, even in the 'hood.

For those looking for this all hour high-calorie oasis it's on the corner of Brooklyn Av (natch) and Atlantic Ave on the boarder of Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights.

Photo Wed: 4/22/09 : Down by the Docks

When I was about 16 or 17 I found D.U.M.B.o.

It had no name then. Vinegar Hill was essentially still lost to time, yet to be recovered.

Of course there were no state parks, no grass actually except for the sculpted hills surrounding the BQE, no condos of course, not even the art studios that last longer in memory than they did in reality had been brought into existence yet.

With the exception of a few fellow Puerto Ricans I saw in the windows of a squat apartment building on the corner of Front Street, there were essentially no residences. It was no where. Basically if someone asked me that first day where I had been I would have said,"the waterfront, down by the docks".

On my soon to be stolen bike, I bumped slowly over cobblestones, tracing the path of phantom trolley cars along actual tracks, trying so hard to get my tires to fit into their grooves.

At night, down by the docks in brooklyn, I'm reminded of that unrefined place.

PhotoWed: 4/15/09 - a Bridge too...

we're all travelers


Brooklyn Born is in transition on this photo/wednesday

Spicy Taco Talk: La Taqueria

So I'm walking down Washington Ave on the razor's edge that used to be the border between Crown and Prospect Heights. (I'll never stop pointing out that it used to all be Crown Heights) And I come across "La Taqueria" just south from the corner of St. Marks and Washington Av, next door to the Thai spot.

And for some reason I never noticed La Taqueria before, the interior empty of patrons and the handwritten sign in the window convinced me it was new. Reading about it on Yelp I see the place has been around since at least last summer. Brooklyn Born needs to get out more often...

So I'm gonna skip the installment on new businesses "blooming" which was the point of this post. This also makes me realize I need to start writing reviews of eateries...
I've felt random and infrequent reviews are useless to you, there are so many constant reviews out there after all. So I never bothered but I recently tried out a oft talked about fringe cafe (coy, no?) and I think I found the angle for my critiques. So food/experience reviews are coming.

Meanwhile, above is the pic I snapped and here's the Yelp debate about whether La Taqueria is the high maintenance partner who makes you pay for the special sauce...that really is special or whether it's left Coast sloppy seconds.

My words but that's basically the point. Yelp Reviews of La Taqueria