This past Saturday, my friend and I went on an adventure to Brighton Beach. We drove down towards the direction of Coney Island and stopped on the side of the road right by the Verrazano bridge to draw. Once we got into the beach area, all the streets had aquatic-themed names. That was kind of cute. I was aware beforehand that the area was heavily populated by Ukrainians [part of the reason why I wanted to go there], but once I looked out the window and started reading signs, I realized just how populated it was. Most signs were in Ukrainian alone, and when there was a chain store & the sign was in English, there would be a handmade paper sign underneath with the Ukrainian translation. We parked & walked towards the beach. I caught fragments of conversations as we climbed on the rocks by the water. We collected shells, then returned to the car [it was way too cold]. After a ten minute break we decided to go out and explore some more. We walked down what seemed like a main road looking for a restaurant, but every time we walked to the door, crowds of people inside looked at us outside, as if they knew it was our first time here. That pretty much killed any desire we had to go eat. Luckily we passed a bakery with many cherry-filled pastries [our favorite] in the window. We went inside & probably bought about a million pounds of pastries for only $10. My friend was doing that thing that I hate, the thing where you talk to someone who doesn’t speak English louder, as if that will somehow make them understand. I got to speak Ukrainian for the first time in my life, and somehow the woman at the register understood. Researching the history of Brighton Beach, I discovered that in the late 1800’s, it was decided that Brighton should be like Coney island, and a racetrack was built, along with sideshow curiosities, and hotels. For some time, it was a popular destination. Once the Nazis started doing their thing, a large amount of Russian and Ukrainian Jews fled to Brighton, which was now considerably run-down. Over time, conditions worsened, neighborhoods became overcrowded, buildings fell into disrepair & the youth turned to crime.
Tags: adventure, explore, history, neighborhood, research
