Category: Hearing

Close your eyes. What do you hear? The cars racing outside or the subway? When you close your eyes on Brighton Beach you may hear those sounds as well. You will also hear the chatter of Russian and Ukrainian. You’ll hear the sound of people shuffling through their day and honking from cars when people cross when they shouldn’t. You would hear the sound of grocery bags of customers putting in fruits and vegetables. If you walk closer to the boardwalk, you’ll hear the waves crashing against the sand and depending on the time of year, you may hear faint screams coming from Luna Park. Maybe an accordion player or a singer will be stationed along the boardwalk as well, playing over the laughing teenagers hanging out. The sounds of Brighton Beach are eclectic and every street may bring a new sound with it.
I visited Brighton again on April 10th, and it was an incredible warm 74 degrees Fahrenheit. Instead of walking the streets of Brighton, my friend and I decided to walk along the boardwalk. He lives near Kings Highway so it was nice to get a perspective of someone who wasn’t consonantly near Brighton.
The boardwalk is a very social place during the summer months and people of all ages are present, ranging anywhere from the toddlers to the elder generations. It was a good day to take a walk because of the remarkably warm weather. Because of the previous snow storm and cold weather, people were longing for this day and many people were out. I was there from about 4pm-8pm but I decided to take pictures during the sunset. Not too many people were out at that time because it began to get a little more chilly.
When I just got there, my friend and I started walking from the corner of Brighton and Coney Island. That is where Shorefront is located so there were many parents with their younger children playing near there. As we continued walking, we saw people taking off their shoes and going in the sand. I walked up to see if it was warm enough to go bare feet but decided against it because the sand wasn’t as warm as I had thought. A bit farther along the boardwalk, there is a spot that the local teenagers like to meet at during the summer and there were about 12 teenagers being loud around that area while playing music. We walked down all the way to the beginning of Coney Island and just sat down on a bench as the sun was beginning to set. On our stroll back, there were fewer people walking but more clusters of people relaxing. In front of Tatiana Restaurant, there was a man playing the accordion and about 20 elderly people surrounding him listening and clapping along to the music. This did not come as a shock to me because the whole boardwalk is filled with events like this during the summer. It was obvious that people were longing for a warm day so they could finally feel the summer spirit.
As we continued walking, we saw couples, both young adults and people that were middle aged holding hands and talking on a stroll or just sitting down on the benches closer to the sand.
I decided to visit “Zalatoy Kluchik” to conduct an interview because it was closing time and there would be less business for the worker to be worried about.
The man who I interviewed is named is Stopa and my family knows him because we buy cold cuts from him when we go shopping. He agreed to let me do the interview. I asked him a few questions that he answered while he was putting away the meats and cheeses for the night. He was extremely nice and was even happy to tell me about his story because he knew it would help with my project.
After conducting the interview, my friend and I strolled along Brighton back to Coney Island Ave where we parked the car. The evening was fairly quiet because most of the food places were closed for the night but people were still getting home so there were some walking around on the streets either way.

While walking down the beach, we stopped to record the sounds of nature. The ocean water crashing in the background and the seagulls squawking while in flight led to a harmony of sound.

The New York City subway system runs through the center of Brighton Beach, resulting in a very loud neighborhood. The B and Q train transport Brighton Beach locals to places such as Manhattan and Bronx, so these people can work in different boroughs of New York City.