Brooklyn

Borough

Stickball, Multiculturalism, Public Transportation, Gentrification, a sense of community

Anything by Paul Auster or Neil Simon

the sound of children playing, lovers fighting, street sweepers, hum of electricity, the elevated train

Welcome Back Kotter

The Dutch and English settled me in 1636 and 1637
(previously I was home to the Canarsie Native Americans).
About nine years later Dutch farmers established the hamlet
of Brueckelen, near the present Borough Hall. By 1664, six
towns had been established: Breuckelen (later anglicized to
Brooklyn), Bushwick, Flatbush, Nieuw Amersfoort (Flatlands),
Gravesend, and New Utrecht. Kings county was established in
1683; the Brooklyn Ferry area was incorporated as the
village of Brooklyn in 1816, and the entire town was
chartered as a city in 1834. In the 1830s Brooklyn Heights
became perhaps the first modern suburb, accessible to New
York City by ferry.

I steadily absorbed neighboring settlements. After
annexing Williamsburg and Bushwick in 1854, I became the
third largest city in the United States, and continued to
absorb other towns, including Flatbush, New Utrecht, and
Gravesend, until it became coextensive with Kings County in
1896. In 1898, when I became a New York City borough, my
population was 830,000. Now I boast over 2.5 million residents.

friendsterbrooklyn@hotmail.com