Brooklyn, Baby! A Family Visit to the Big Apple’s ‘High Rising’ Borough.

On the first of May, 2018, I flew out to Brooklyn from Colorado where I live to visit my brother. In February my brother had a baby and I had to go see him!

I ventured into my childhood home, the concrete jungle of Clinton Hill, between Pratt Institute and the Fort Greene neighborhoods.

When I arrived at his apartment building I admired the blue and white tile picture of fish and boats, a reminder of how the buildings used to house the people who worked down at the Navy Yard, a couple of blocks away on the Hudson river. Now, the residences are all “co-op” developments.

My brother purchased this home a couple of years ago, which is just one block away from where we grew up during our childhood. Clinton Hill is now much different than when my brother and I grew up there long ago.

Myrtle Ave, which will take you down to Fort Greene park if you travel west, has many coffee shops, yoga studios, restaurants and bars that weren’t there when growing up there in the 1970s and 80s.

The four of us; my brother, his wife, my nephew and I all walked around Clinton Hill in the evening. The sidewalk bustled with people walking dogs or sitting in front of their brownstones enjoying spring. We got pizza and gelato at a local spot called Aita Pizzeria. Then walked by Underwood Park where the concrete sprinklers showered children one this 90 degree day.

Arrival

I arrived at EWR or Newark Liberty International Airport, www.newarkairport.com, in New Jersey and they have an “Airtrain” that will take you to the NJ rail transit train station, which will take you straight into Penn Station, New York. Don’t make the same mistake I did and get out at “Newark” Penn Station. Make sure you exit at New York Penn! It costs $12.50 and takes 30–45 minutes to ride into the city.

The best way to get around