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.
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.
