Ever Been to Williamsburg?

June 3rd, 2009 → by Erica Johansson

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122323 9000 Ever Been to Williamsburg?

© Dee Fontenot

Traveling to New York soon? Don’t forget to pay a visit to Williamsburg. This part of Brooklyn is not far from Manhattan but a different world worth experiencing at least once.

The only picture I had of Williamsburg before visiting in August 2004 came from “ok, amen” by the Swedish culture journalist and author Nina Solomon. This book about her time with the ultra-orthodox Jews in Williamsburg gives a unique insight into a radically different culture and mentality. You can recognize the Chassidic Jews on their black hats, black coats and corkscrew curls. Even though they live in the heart of a world metropolis, they live more or less isolated from their surroundings.

How to get there? The subway’s L-line (the grey on the map) starts on the 8th Avenue on Manhattan and continues along 14th Street through Brooklyn. The Bedford Avenue subway station is only one stop from Manhattan. If you choose the J, M, or Z-line, you’ll end up further south closer to the blocks where the Chassidic Jews live.

Somewhat related: Ava Dakota Kim in Block Magazine, Williamsburg Pop:

New York in general has always been a pretty grimy place, from the days of horse carriages, trolleys and feces sharing the roads to the days of the subway full of sleeping homeless folks. However, in the past, Williamsburg was used not for its fashionable reputation, but passed off as other locations because it was convenient for filming. The Southside of Williamsburg, for example, has found a special place in the heart of filmmakers seeking a slummy background. In countless chase scenes and crack house busts, from Serpico to American Gangster, Williamsburg’s once-elegant (we’re talking late 1800s, before the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge) Southside has played the site of another city or neighborhood’s crime. In fact, in the 80s, it was truly the site of many a gang crime and crack bust. Slanted tenement roofs and fire escapes evoke Bensonhurt in Spike of Bensonhurst and the Lower East Side in Once Upon a Time in America, and even Harlem in American Gangster. In The Departed, Park Luncheonette on the border of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, with a few antiques added in, stands in for a classic Bostonian mom and pop grocery and diner, and the Marcy Avenue Armory and Works Engineering Motorcycle Shop play grimy interiors. In Garden State, Sea on North 6th Street stands in for a disgustingly posh Vietnamese restaurant that Zach Braff’s character serves at in LA.

I didn’t write any journal at the time of our visit and have no recollection of the cafés and shops we went to, but if you have your own tips about things to do and see in the area, feel free to share in the comments.

Possibly related posts:

  1. “If Paris is France, Coney Island, between June and September, is the World.”
  2. Gospel in Harlem
  3. New York, New York
  4. New York City’s Best Bagels