Tasneem’s Reflection

Tasneem Ahmed 0 Comment Uncategorized
         As a resident of Bay Ridge, exploring my hometown as an ethnographer was a bittersweet experience. Bay Ridge is the town I grew up in, and disregarding my sentiment in order to talk about it in a researcher’s point of view was both an eye-opening and exhausting experience. Despite living in Bay Ridge for nineteen years, I never attended school inside Bay Ridge, and for that reason, the only experience I previously had with exploring my hometown was my daily trip from the door of my house to the subway station. When I found out that we would be choosing to research a community for our project, I was very excited to learn more about “the Ridge.” This project was not just me writing down my observations about a random city; this was a journey for me to discover why Bay Ridge was the community my parents decided to raise me in.
         Ethnography is a science that allows us to describe and understand people and their culture. At first, I did not understand the reason in doing so as this was unfamiliar to me. However, I soon discovered that taking the time to write down everything that is seen, heard, tasted, smelled, and experienced gives the writer the power to read into the smallest of actions and formulate ideas based on that. On my first trip to my site, I was a bit anxious as I did not know if standing in the corner of 86th street and 5th avenue would provide me with enough information to formulate any descriptions or ideas about Bay Ridge. Surprisingly, I was overwhelmed by the simplicity of the details that I did not previously notice. When I rush back home daily after school or I occasionally take a trip to T.J Maxx for the newest deals, there is never a moment of observation. My goal in walking home or buying clothes does not allow me to participate in the extent of the Bay Ridge experience. This project gave me the chance to notice the usually overlooked and to use this information to make theories and theses about the population around me.
        When actually writing my raw field notes, there was so much for me to write. From the food smells to the bird chirps to the stained windows, I felt as if I became aware of everything. In fact, in my first observation trip, it was very arduous for me to divert all of my concentration to one sense at a time. What was even more difficult was taking these scribbles of raw data and transforming them into legible and meaningful ideas. However, what I quickly realized was that there is much more to Bay Ridge than its extensive history as clearly evident by the pictures provided and its plethora of businesses (Old Bayridge Pictures). While Bay Ridge certainly lacks in its African American population, there is no denying that it is not overwhelmingly populated by one race. From Greek to Arabic to Chinese to Thai to Italian to Spanish, these are only a few of the countless ethnicities Bay Ridge proudly displays on the names of its restaurants and businesses.
           At first, it seems as if this is problematic to the idea of Bay Ridge being a small town in a large city that many residents refer to it as (Kripke 1). However, it is not; Bay Ridge is a multicultural town, and it is a place where outsiders come to learn about numerous cultures at the same time, especially through the food. When we interviewed Rachel and Candy at the pier, they both repeatedly stated how they appreciated Bay Ridge for its diversity and welcomeness. Their opinions of Bay Ridge being a melting pot of cultures was unnoticed by me until after this project.
         At first our group wanted to divide Bay Ridge into three distinct sections: commercial, residential and food. However, I quickly realized that Bay Ridge is much more harmonious in the way that it is gridded. Although there are places with less restaurants than others, we did not want to display Bay Ridge as a town with separations. Rather, we wanted to represent Bay Ridge as it truly is: small community that encourages different cultures to interact with each other. However, despite the merge of different cultures, there are areas where the concentration of expensive residences is higher than other areas. As you approach the Verrazano Bridge, the prices of the residencies increase. Even when I was not on a site purposely observing everything around me, I did notice that there was a spectrum of ethnicities in Bay Ridge. As the prices of the houses increase, the numbers of minorities decrease. Although this is merely an observation, it is quite interesting that Bay Ridge is both a cultural melting pot and a representation of the economic differences between races.
          This project has allowed me to explore my hometown in a way I never expected to. From learning about its extensive history to its current sizable amount of diversity, Bay Ridge may be slightly boring in its ordinariness, but it is still a charming and welcoming community.

Ireen’s Reflection

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When you live in the same neighborhood your whole life, you tend to think you know the area inside and out. You see familiar faces, popular hot spots, and you know where exactly to go to grab a bite to eat or to get some peace and quiet. So when we first discussed the project, I expected it to be an easy assignment thinking there wasn’t much else to learn. I was already forming ideas and the layout in my head. When we were told that two field notes needed to be done, I thought it could be done from years of memory instead of actually going out with the intention of taking notes. I was only partially wrong.

I had written down what I would most probably hear and see. When I went out, all of it was present. As a child, I had always avoided the highway around 65th street. It had always seemed too quiet and I felt disconnected from civilization whenever I had gone. The feeling was still apparent each time I had gone to do a field note. During the colder temperatures, I had the urge to leave as soon as possible. It seemed more silent than usual and there really weren’t too many people.

Though the expected did come true, there were other details that I would have missed otherwise had I not done it properly. I never really took note of how many arab based businesses were in a certain area, or how many of them were halal franchises which reflect the majority of the people who live here. The second thing that I noticed was the difference in sound. I noticed that the two ends of Bay Ridge had less sources of sound than the middle region. For example, the sound in the first region (near 60th street) mainly came from the highway and cars while the middle region had sound coming from cars, busses, people, store fronts, and more.

After doing the project I realized how many businesses that went unnoticed. These were mainly the ones that didn’t seem to have much life in them, the ones that didn’t seem to be prospering. Because I never needed them, I barely ever noted that they were there. The project made me give my attention to most of the environment. It forced me to open my eyes and see things that I ignored on a daily basis. One thing that surprised me was the comic book store by the Alpine Cinema movie theater. I hadn’t realized that it was still there! I used to go as a child and then stopped. But because I stopped, it disappeared from my field of vision.

My home lies on the boundary between what my group determined to be division 1 and division 2. When I set out to do my field notes, I didn’t recognize anyone by the highway nor did I recognize anyone in division 3. It was only until I started getting closer to my home did I get smiles, or make small talk with people. I started thinking that it might be a reason why I feel so disconnected from the two ends of Bay Ridge. Maybe I’m just not familiar enough with the people living there.

This project overall did not change my views on my hometown. It did, however, highlight the gradient. I feel as though the gradient has always been at the back of my mind, but it wasn’t until this semester that I really acknowledged it. It wasn’t until now that I realized the ties between the types of people (for example, minority) and the kind of housing condition. I believe I know most of Bay Ridge but I have also learned that visiting the areas that I feel were “dead” more often would change my perspective of them. If I knew more people in division 1 and 3 like I do in division 2, I am sure I would get a more positive vibe. And since I’m not moving anytime soon, I might just venture out to these regions more often.

The Empty Side of the Ridge

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To observe this section of Bay Ridge, I visited a park since in my experience, parks tell a lot about the area of Bay Ridge you are in. The park I visited was on 95th Street and 4th Avenue. The park was very empty, which I thought was unusual for a park in Bay Ridge. Usually, the parks in this neighborhood will always have a few people in them. I waited for a while, but when no one came for a while, I started walking around the area. No one was walking about in the streets at all, which is normal for most streets in Bay Ridge, but this area had an eerie feel to it, as though it was always empty.

As I walked around the area, I observed the homes. The closer I walked to 100th Street, the fancier the homes became. The homes along the water and the parks on 100th Street had the most manicured lawns and balconies. Along Shore Road, there were only the most extravagant mansions. I remembered how excessive their Christmas decorations were in December. The mansions in the area are clearly incredibly expensive, and their owners could afford to spend money on things of that nature.

This area has almost no stores or commerce and is residential. As soon as you pass 86th Street, stores and commercial activity becomes sparse. There are a few car dealerships, supermarkets, and restaurants, but they are few and spaced apart from each other.

This is an area I haven’t visited at all, mostly because it is residential and I don’t know anyone who lives there. Passing by it while on a car, however, gave me a good enough feel of the place. Even though it gives off a desolate and empty feeling, many people live in this area. This area is the most expensive in terms of housing in Bay Ridge. There are several private schools in this section, which attests to how expensive it is. It’s also close to the ocean and has several beautiful parks, making it a pleasant place to live. It has connections to the rest of Bay Ridge and Staten Island with transportation, so it isn’t cut off.

While this area is very different from the rest of Bay Ridge, it is still a part of the neighborhood and has some similar characteristics. It has a lot of green space and families, and several restaurants. Some parts of Bay Ridge may seem different, but it has similar features as a whole.

A Significant Moment

Tasneem Ahmed 0 Comment 87th St - 100th St

Because I live in 86th street, and I was not familiar with the stores and restaurants beyond 88th street, I can say that this was my first time exploring the 90s (this number is referring to the streets) of Bay Ridge, and for that reason, I did not have any expectations. As I started walking on fourth avenue, I quickly noticed that the rush of people common to the 80s quickly decreased. The bus stops were much more interspersed and there was not a lot of traffic. It was a Monday afternoon, a time when 86th street is crowded with students and workers coming home, and despite that, the 90s were sadly barren. There were a few restaurants and stores here and there, but besides me, there was a range of one to two other pedestrians per block.
As I continued to walk, I noticed that all of the establishments around me were car dealerships or related to that line of business. From Kia to Hyundai to a large car-wash shop to an auto-repair business, fourth avenue revolved around the automobile industry. Because I have never visited these areas, I was a bit perplexed as to why this would be so as it seemed misplaced amongst the small quaint community. I later concluded that the reason behind this is most likely because there is so much empty space that suits these companies. In fact, I also noticed that in fifth avenue, the stores began to provide large parking areas. Staples, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Kentucky Fried Chicken are a few of the areas that did so.

From Google Maps

The more I walked towards the 100s, the smaller and more local the restaurants became. While the 80s are crowded with large and luxurious Italian restaurants, the 90s have small pizza shops and the corner diners. As for the residences, the apartments began to increase in size. Condominiums and co-op buildings were more prevalent, and this correlates with our background research that shows that the closer one gets to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the more expensive the prices become. The 90s were quieter as well. The sounds of cars beeping and buses screeching rapidly to their stops were gone. In fact, there were a few minutes were there was nothing heard but the sounds of birds chirping and a man cleaning his doorstep. The houses looked nicer as well; they all had beautiful landscaping and there was not much litter on the ground. Perhaps, that explains why there was no lingering smell of garbage.
This area of Bay Ridge did not feel like Bay Ridge at all to me. It was as if I was walking in a community that was not mine; the people looked unfamiliar and the stores were unwelcoming. Perhaps, that was just a bias of mine as I had never explored or even walked through this region of Bay Ridge. However, these observations underscore the fact that Bay Ridge is an area of diversity;  this area was the most luxurious and expensive part of Bay Ridge proving that it is wanted by others despite my own discomfort. This made me realize that some parts of ethnography are inevitably relative as my biases clearly affected my observations. However, despite that, this area of exploration brought me to realize how much I did not know about my own community and my own uneasiness in it, and that moment was very significant for me.

A Freezing Afternoon

Tasneem Ahmed 0 Comment 73rd St - 86th St

      It was a freezing afternoon. I attempted to keep my hands warms by blowing on them but that was an awkward mess as I was holding a heavy camera in my hand. I would later find out that all the footage was shaky and blurry because my concentration was on maintaining my body warmth more than it was on acquiring aesthetic footage. Despite the atrocious weather, the streets were crowded with the usual amount of people. The halal carts were bustling with customers as the smell of shawarma meat intermixed with the smell of the Popeye’s across the street. The smell of food was welcomed by my cold nose, but it was quickly replaced by the lingering scent of left-over garbage from the day before. It seemed as if the snow had slowed things down.

    However, people still jumped over garbage bags and puddles of melted slushy ice to cross the crowded streets to get to their shopping sprees or their journeys home. It was evident who was there for the latest deal in T.J Maxx and who was there to rush home. Both men and women in suits holding suitcases and wearing long coats ran across the warning red hand that foreshadowed the incoming cars that splashed the pedestrians with dirty snow. I stood there watching all of these interactions before deciding to cross the street. Across the street, an elderly woman was struggling with her shopping cart. She attempted to pick it up over the snow; despite the crowd, no one helped her. At the corner I was standing in, there were others standing with me. An elderly man, of Middle Eastern descent, was angrily yelling on the phone in a thick Egyptian Arabic accent. A crowd of Fort Hamilton high school students (all of them looked like they were white), were loudly waiting for the buses. Three of them were holding hot Starbucks drinks from the Starbucks behind them.

     I started walking the opposite direction towards 4th avenue, and the crowd quickly increased as people were exiting the buses and the train station. The crowd consisted of people of all ages, but mostly high school students and working middle-aged people. Wendy’s and McDonald’s were unusually crowded. I assumed it was due to the weather because when I usually pass by these two fast food chains, the high school students are normally outside eating the food they just purchased. The clothing stores were mostly empty, which is unusual, but I excused that as an effect of the dismal weather.

     When I decided that it was time for me to walk the block home, I realized that this “stakeout” was much more disappointing than I expected. The majority of the people were loud and obnoxious high schoolers who I felt were judging me as I was just standing and not doing anything. The other half of the population was people who were rushing to go to their warm homes. It was quite evident that 86th street was the center of chain stores and transportation of Bay Ridge. Being a resident of Bay Ridge, I already knew this but experiencing it for 20 minutes was a bit of a shock to me. The amount of cars, buses, and people does not seem much when I am part of the crowd, but 86th street makes Bay Ridge look more like a city than the “small village” it is. In fact, when I attempted to approach a few people for a quick interview, I was ignored. When I got home and wrote down my field notes, I decided that it was just a bad day because the weather was not welcoming or happy in any way, and I had hopes for the next time.

 

Images

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60th Street to 72nd Street

 

 

73rd Street to 86th Street

 

Sound and Video Files

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Interview with Candy and Ashley

Tasneem’s Bay Ridge: short clips from my trips

86th Street: Audio recording of cars driving over slush.

 

PS 102: Audio recording of courtyard at 8:10 AM.

 

62nd Street: Video from the street corner.

 

 

 

Safaa’s Reflection

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Since I have lived in Bay Ridge for about eighteen years, I decided to research this neighborhood for the project. The group I am in has four people, and three out of the four of us (including me) have grown up in this neighborhood. Our project was influenced by that since most of us knew Bay Ridge very well already. The group member who does not live in Bay Ridge provided a valuable perspective of Bay Ridge, since she was seeing it for the first time and had no prior biases.

Growing up in Bay Ridge, I felt like I knew all about it in terms of its divisions. My groupmates who live there thought they did as well. When we first planned out the project, however, we started to divide Bay Ridge by ethnicity, looking at the different types of restaurants and stores as references, since that was part of how we viewed Bay Ridge. I researched my neighborhood to see what I could learn about the demographics of Bay Ridge. I found that while Bay Ridge has had a population of people of Italians and Irish descent, there are now Arabic, Greek, Russian, and Chinese residents (Kripke 1). I was surprised to see that Hispanics were not mentioned at all, since I had originally thought they made up a significant part of the neighborhood. I was pleased to find that Bay Ridge is as diverse as I had originally thought.

We quickly realized that the method we had chosen would not work since the boundaries between ethnicities were very blurred. While we could definitely say a lot of Arabic and Chinese people lived in the beginning of Bay Ridge (streets 60 – 70), we could see them in the middle of Bay Ridge as well, even if those groups of people were not as plentiful. We looked at the restaurants in the neighborhood as well to try to determine where certain ethnicities started and ended, but that didn’t help.

Because it was difficult to separate Bay Ridge into sections based on ethnicity, we decided to split it into three sections based on wealth. Since we knew that Bay Ridge’s homes went from being small apartments to expensive mansions and apartments (from 60th Street to 100th Street), we broke it up into three sections. The first section was from 60th Street to 72nd Street, the second from 73rd Street to 86th Street, and the third from 87th Street to 100th Street.

Our thesis was that Bay Ridge becomes wealthier as the street numbers increase. We examined the real estate listings to help prove this thesis, and found that we were correct. The demographic also changes, and more people of Italian and Irish descent can be found in the third section. The first section contains mostly people of Arabic and Chinese descent, and the middle section is a gradual mix of both the first and the third sections. The reason for this could be that the Irish and Italian populations have been around Bay Ridge a lot longer and are already established in the neighborhood, while the other demographics are made up of mostly recent immigrants who are still struggling to make enough money to leave their small apartments.

My perspective on Bay Ridge has remained largely unchanged by this project. It’s the same town-like neighborhood as I grew up in; since I’ve been living in this neighborhood for eighteen years, my feelings and thoughts on Bay Ridge are based on a lot of experience in it. I grew up visiting the parks, restaurants, and the shops in this neighborhood. My first home was on 68th Street and 3rd Avenue, and my family moved in my sophomore year of high school to 76th Street. While the areas had a different vibe, I had expected that because I knew Bay Ridge well. Since I have lived in two different parts of the neighborhood, I have an even better grasp of the area.

To me, Bay Ridge has always had a home-like feel, probably because of the people and the shops. While I don’t know a lot of the people I pass on the street, I see people I know or recognize often enough to feel like I am in a smaller community. Sixty percent of Bay Ridge is made up of family households, which can contribute to the close domestic feeling it gives off (“Bay Ridge Demographics…” 1). There are also a lot of Arabic and Islamic stores in Bay Ridge that I visit often. There is a large Muslim population in Bay Ridge, so these stores represent a group of people there. This does not only apply to this demographic—most of the groups in Bay Ridge are represented by the types of stores you see. There are a lot of Asian restaurants in Bay Ridge to represent that population. Italian restaurants are abundant in the more areas where they live.

The one thing that I learned when researching for this project is that Bay Ridge was not as gentrified as I had originally thought. Gentrification is the process of middle class moving into a lower class neighborhood, causing rent and home prices to increase and forcing out lower class residents (Yee 1). Growing up, I had seen a few old family-run businesses in my area fail and get replaced with a newer, more modern looking shop. At the time, I had thought that that meant there was gentrification in Bay Ridge, but I realized during this project that Bay Ridge was actually fairly well preserved compared to a lot of other neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Some neighborhoods lost up to 14 percent of their black population (Yee 1). Since Bay Ridge is not losing large percentages of certain populations, it is safe to say that gentrification is not affecting it as much as it could. I also compared the restaurant prices and compared them by area. While there was a very slight increase in price, I didn’t see the prices increasing as much as I thought they would as the streets got higher. This project made me realize that I had overestimated the effect of gentrification on Bay Ridge, especially compared to other neighborhoods.

This project made me explore my neighborhood more thoroughly than I had ever done before. I discovered new restaurants and stores, and learned a lot about the populations of Bay Ridge. While my perspective did not change, I have a renewed appreciation for the neighborhood I grew up in.

Shopping Strip of the Ridge

Safaa 0 Comment 73rd St - 86th St, Places

Sound of cars on 86th street. 

 

Tasneem and I visited 86th street, between 4th and 5th avenues. It had been snowing a lot the week we visited, so the sides of the streets were piled high with old snow, and slush had formed on the streets. The snow was dirty since it had been piling for a while. The atmosphere was dreary because of the heavy layer of clouds and the freezing temperature. We grabbed her camera and headed over to the corner of 86th street and 4th avenue, which is the center of the area. I recorded the sound of the street after realizing that the cars were noisier than usual because of the slush in the street. Not many people were outside, and even the traffic was much lighter than usual. We observed people on the street for a while, shivering in the cold.

The wind and the cold air were so intense that we could not stay for a long time. We observed a lot, though, in the time we spent there. Even with the inconvenience of the weather, there were two halal food carts on two different corners, and a few people even bought food from them, waiting in the cold for it to be prepared. It was a lot quieter than I was used to for this street, which is why the sounds of the cars was amplified.

There were a lot fewer people on this street than usual because of the weather. 86th street is lined with many different types of shops: clothing stores, gift shops, shoe stores, and even restaurants. It’s also the site where commuters who want to take a bus to Staten Island must go. Several other bus stops and the R train station are also at this street. For these reasons, 86th street is usually bustling with activity from shoppers and commuters.

For our project, we tried to see the difference between different sections in Bay Ridge. One important thing I noticed when I later strolled around the area on my own is that the amount of stores and activity drops dramatically in the streets in the late 80s. Activity also decreases when you go to 3rd avenue. The epicenter of activity is the corner we stood on. On the day we visited, however, only a handful of people could be seen walking about.

86th street represents an important characteristic of Bay Ridge, which is that it is self-reliant. A resident of this neighborhood would not need to leave often because Bay Ridge has many types of stores. There is a wide variety of restaurants. In 86th street alone, there are Vietnamese, Mexican, Japanese, Arabic, and fast food restaurants. There are also plenty of bodegas and supermarkets for personal food shopping. 86th street is a shopping center, so there are many clothing shops there. Even within Bay Ridge, transportation is easy to access. There are buses on third, fourth, and fifth avenues, and a train on fourth avenue. As mentioned before, 86th street has buses that go to Staten Island. This street is a great example of why a person would not have to leave the neighborhood.

86th street is an important part of Bay Ridge. It’s one of the busiest parts of the neighborhood, and has been around as a shopping area for quite some time. Even though time goes by and more chain stores such as Chipotle or Banana Republic are added to this street, 86th street never loses its charm and continues being a big part of Bay Ridge.