The Five Reasons I Love Brooklyn: Morgan Spurlock
The Five Reasons
1. It is the absolute best place to raise a kid in NYC. It has the most kid-friendly neighborhoods—everywhere you walk, there are places where you can take your children to play, to eat, to have fun. I literally just moved into an apartment that’s around the corner from a puppet show. There’s actually a real puppet-show building in the middle of a neighborhood, which is pretty awesome.
2. I loved living in NYC when I was in my twenties and early thirties, but then I reached a point where I didn’t want to live in the East Village anymore. I didn’t want to come walking home through pools of vomit and urine. It was time to expand my adult horizons, but I didn’t want to leave the city. Which is why I love Brooklyn, because you have all the things that make the city great, but when I go home at night, it is so quiet, so peaceful, so serene. When I go out and walk around my neighborhood, it’s a real neighborhood.
3. I love Prospect Park. Prospect Park is my favorite park in New York City. Central Park is fantastic but Prospect Park kills it. I love riding my bike in it, I love taking my son to play on the playgrounds, I love having picnics there. I also love the summer concert series at the bandshell.
4. I love the Brooklyn Brewery. I love that Brooklyn has a brewery; I love the beer they make. I am a big Guinness fan but the Brooklyn Brewery is a very close second.
5. I love that people don’t seem to be as afraid to come here anymore. I lived in DUMBO when I was about 30 and, literally, it’s the first stop out of Manhattan but I might as well have lived in China. People just would not take the F train one more stop out of Manhattan to come here, they thought it was so far. Literally, you would say to someone, “Hey man, we’re having this party and we’re in Brooklyn.” “Oh Brooklyn? I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it.” But now people don’t see it as being so far away because other people have moved to the outer boroughs. Now those in Manhattan are much more willing to bring their passports and get on the train.