Visions of Vibrancy: Brooklyn

[Metro Jacksonville]

Visions of Vibrancy: Brooklyn



The vibrancy of cities comes in all shapes and sizes. Many believe that what works in internationally known cosmopolitan settings may not be applicable for cities such as Jacksonville, which have struggled with embracing walkability. If we look hard enough, we may realize that this type of view should be challenged. Despite the diversity around the globe, all lively cities, downtowns, and urban cores have something in common: being pedestrian friendly. Today, Metro Jacksonville visits the streets of Brooklyn.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-may-visions-of-vibrancy-brooklyn

[Keith-N-Jax]

My first trip to NY I stayed in Brooklyn with a friend. After seeing those prices for parking I will not complain about parking prices in some of these European cities I've visited.

[fieldafm]

Lake, considering where those pictures were taken... I hope that you walked a block over for pizza at Grimaldis.

[thelakelander]

^Nope. I went to Juliana's next door. I was told by a local that Grimaldi had been forced out of his own restaurant and name, and decided to enact revenge by opening Juliana's next door:

It's possible that Grimaldi's, that pizza institution under the Brooklyn Bridge, is more famous for its lines than its pies at this point, and sure enough, 40 minutes before noon on Saturday, groups of people had already started to wait, hoping to catch one of the first tables when the doors opened. A few people glanced at the hordes and wandered two doors down to the original Grimaldi's location, where not-yet-year-old Juliana's was already doing business, turning out pizzas for a still-thin early lunch crowd.

See that scenario and you might assume that Juliana's is an opportunistic operation, taking up residence to catch some of the overflow from a historic spot that was forced to move two doors away after facing eviction. Most food-obsessed New Yorkers, though, know that this set-up is actually the culmination of a long rivalry, which came to a head last year.

Patsy Grimaldi has been no stranger to pizza-related conflict over the years. A tiff with the group that took over his deceased uncle's Harlem pizzeria, Patsy's, forced him to change the name of his Brooklyn pizzeria from Patsy's to Grimaldi's in the mid-1990s. But his current feud began when he sold Grimaldi's to Frank Ciolli in 1998, which started a long-festering clash that played out in a way that belongs in a movie script: When Grimaldi's was forced out, Patsy Grimaldi moved back into his old restaurant space, where the coal-fired oven was still intact, to open a new pizzeria, Juliana's, to best his nemesis the good old-fashioned way--by doing better business. Ciolli tried to sue, but the case was tossed out, and now the joints operate side by side. And while there's no overt name-calling, at least not while customers are in line, Juliana's keeps an enlarged version of a New York story that details Patsy Grimaldi's path to exacting his commercial revenge plastered in the window.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/2013/06/julianas_and_gr.php

[fieldafm]

Ahh, haven't been back since Julianas opened. Last time I was in DUMBO there was a work permit in the window.

Looks like you were also very close to several NYC DOT Plaza Program examples like Pearl Street Plaza and Willoughby Plaza. Any shots of those?

[thelakelander]

I didn't get a shot of Brooklyn's but I did get a shot of Herald Square and Broadway in Manhattan:

[JaxJersey-licious]

What? No Sunset Park? No Fort Green? No Gowanus? No Prospect Heights? No Bushwick? No Borough Park? No...

Jk...for we are taking about the Mighty Brooklyn New York, and you're are just a mere solitary mortal without the capacity to encompass all her dimensions to adequately capture and expound all her tales of woe and rejoicing to those yearning for greater urbanity.

But we appreciate all the pretty pics!   

[simms3]

These are great pictures of Brooklyn.  I'd say you got around - Brooklyn by itself is so huge it would still be one of the largest cities in the country.  Impossible to see it all.  The highlights are a good taste.

[thelakelander]

Yes, Brooklyn is a huge place. It's NYC's largest borough with an estimated 2014 population of 2.62 million people living in a 71 square mile area. If it were its own city, only Los Angeles and Chicago would be larger by population, although both would pale in comparison with Brooklyn's density.

When I was up there, I stayed in Queens, which is the largest borough by land area and second largest by population. A lot to see but very hard to do in a week's time period. I'll definitely have to get back up there to do some urban exploring at some point in the future.

[I-10east]

Many people don't know that Brooklyn and Queens are technically part of Long Island as most people don't consider those boroughs to be, (first thought of Long Island often is suburbia, differentiating from the 5 boroughs of NYC, and yes much of Staten Island is suburban). Then of course you have the whole Brooklyn differentiation thing (Nets, Dodgers etc). NYC is a very confusing place LOL. 

[Redbaron616]

Along with the high prices, living in one of New York's boroughs will bring you the joy of paying a city income tax. My father grew up in Brooklyn and when he left, he never went back, not even to visit. NYC is exciting for people visiting, but not all that wonderful for the toiling masses. Naturally, the affluent love it wherever they live. 

[thelakelander]

Yeah, everyone is different. I have friends that have left Jax to move to other places and they love their new homes. My dad left Jacksonville in 1975 to move to Central Florida and never had second thoughts of moving back up here. On the other hand, I left Central Florida for Jax in 2003 and you'd have to pay me a chunk of money to seriously consider moving back down there.