Liliya
The communities along the D train are some of the most fascinating communities that exist in New York City. The last stop of the D train in Brooklyn is Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue, and there are many communities surrounding this station, such as Brighton Beach, West Brighton and Seagate-Coney Island. The communities near Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue have something no other community has- Luna Park, the boardwalk and beach. Before conducting an interview with a resident living in one of the communities, I made a hypothesis that these communities are ideal for retired people and the elderly. “It’s like the Miami Beach of New York” (Christina Chala). I believe that the communities Brighton Beach, West Brighton, and Seagate-Coney Island are ideal retirement communities for the residents of Brooklyn and maybe even residents of the other boroughs.
My friend Andrey and his grandmother, Liliya, live along Avenue Y near Ocean Parkway. Liliya has lived in her apartment for a little over 30 years; she lives with a friend of hers and her grandson, who is 20. Andrey’s parents live in Russia. Conducting this interview with Liliya was more difficult than I expected. Although she spoke English, her English was not perfect so she did not understand some of my questions. It was hard not to be a little bias when asking her about the community because she had no idea what I was talking about, which I then had to give examples or explain why I was asking.
Essentially in my interview I touched on 2 things, changes in the past 10 years and thoughts on how the community might change in the next 10 years. Liliya provided many personal answers, which was very interesting. In the past 10 years, many of her friends have moved. She used to know everyone on her floor but many of them have moved to upper Bensonhurst. Some of her new neighbors are young couples and have children. The others are relatively old couples, most in their 50s. One thing she said that struck me was that a few years ago a supermarket owned by Pakistanis opened a few years ago, and not far from the supermarket was a very Americanized sushi/Japanese restaurant.
When I asked her about what changes she thought would happen in the community, she instantly answered by saying she was going to move.
“I want to move, I will be moving”
“To where?”
“I want to go with friend, near bus…B1”
The area that Liliya is talking about is near the Bay Parkway D train area. I am familiar with the neighborhood since I have lived there for over 14 years. I do see some Caucasians living in that area and now that she brought it up, the Caucasians I saw were probably Russians. When I asked her more generally about the neighborhood and the area she lived in now, she told me that she noticed many new buildings/resident homes and that she expects many more. I asked Liliya one last question to make sure she didn’t have anything else to say. “Is there anything you want to tell me about this neighborhood? It doesn’t have to be related to anything I’ve asked you.” She responded with, “very loud at night now, used to be not as loud.” I found this interesting so I asked her, “Why do you think that is? What changed?” But she did not have an answer for me.
