Living in Borough Park, I was very fortunate to be assigned to Sunset Park, a mere thirty-minute train ride away. I ventured to the neighborhood twice enabling me to get a clear picture of what it was like. The first time I went was on Wednesday, February 18, around 5:45 PM to attend a community meeting of Community Board 7. I took the R train and got off at 45^th street and 4^th avenue. Upon exiting the train station, I saw a moderately busy street. Fourth avenue consists of a wide street with cars rushing back and forth and a large variety of stores. There was a peculiarly large amount of bodegas and delis. There were also other commercial shops such as clothing stores, restaurants, and shoe stores. I had known previously that this part of Sunset Park consisted mainly of Hispanic people; however, I did not realize how much of Hispanic culture permeated the neighborhood. Nearly every person I saw was Hispanic and many of the restaurants served Hispanic cuisine. Coming off of 4^th avenue were residential streets with brownstones of different colors, not like the uniform looking ones you see in neighborhoods like Fort Greene and the Upper West Side.

Walking to the community meeting, I noticed that the houses on the side streets were built on a pretty steep hill. After the community meeting, my GPS unfortunately led me in the wrong direction to the train station; however, I was able to see a much talked about thoroughfare at the meeting: 3^rd avenue. Third Avenue is not a place one wants to be at night. As I approached the avenue along 34^th street, I started to feel a bit on-edge. Unlike the streets leading up to 4^th avenue, those between 3^rd and 4^th are very industrial looking with a few small junkyards and not a lot of people. Third avenue is right under the Gowanus Expressway. Cars travel down this street at very high speeds, and there weren’t many pedestrians. Unfortunately most of the stores were closed, but there weren’t as many as there were on 4^th avenue.

The second time I went to Sunset Park was on Sunday, February 22, around 5:00PM. I started off at 55^th street and 5^th avenue and continued walking up 5^th avenue toward Sunset Park. Fifth Avenue on a Sunday is extremely busy. There were large amounts of people, mostly families, roaming the streets going from store to store. Fifth Avenue had even more stores than 4^th Avenue. In addition to clothing stores and supermarkets, it had a lot of pharmacies, phone stores, taco joints, and, surprisingly enough, quite a few pawn shops. There were many street vendors as well, selling anything from food to jewelry. As I walked I heard a lot of Spanish music, saw a few murals, and passed by many schools and churches. The park was absolutely beautiful. With a great view of the neighborhood and Manhattan, it’s the perfect place for families to enjoy, which is exactly what they did.