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 65^th 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 60^th 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.

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 95^th Street and 4^th 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 100^th Street, the fancier the homes became. The homes along the water and the parks on 100^th 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 86^th 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.

60th Street to 72nd Street

73rd Street to 86th Street

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.

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 60^th Street to 100^th Street), we broke it up into three sections. The first section was from 60^th Street to 72^nd Street, the second from 73^rd Street to 86^th Street, and the third from 87^th Street to 100^th 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 68^th Street and 3^rd Avenue, and my family moved in my sophomore year of high school to 76^th 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.