5 Reasons I Love Brooklyn: Jennifer Egan
1. It’s quiet, especially when you’ve spent the previous five years facing W. 28th Street between Sixth and Seventh in Manhattan. I used to spend my writing-time fantasizing about creating a giant banner to string across the street reading “Don’t honk.” I also briefly considered taking a pair of wire cutters to the consistently misbehaving alarm on a nearby store—in deep night, wearing rubber gloves. That’s when I knew it was time to leave.
2. Its light. As a person who moved around my previous two-room apartment all morning so as to stay near the shifting patches of light, I appreciate the generally open feeling of most parts of Brooklyn. Of course, that may change drastically, as I’m quite near the Atlantic Yards development.
3. It’s diverse. I don’t feel like I’m surrounded by people like me, and that’s a good thing.
4. It’s kid friendly. Our kids love it here, and so do we. Brooklyn has some suburban elements that appeal to kids—excellent sports leagues; big green parks—and great cultural offerings as well: Transit Museum; Brooklyn Children’s Museum; Carmelo the Science Fellow.
5. It’s near Manhattan. Ok, maybe I’m not supposed to say that, but I moved to New York almost 24 years ago because I was besotted by the concentration of energy, activity and culture in Manhattan. I—and we—go there constantly. We once scooped our sons directly off the baseball field, in uniform, and went straight to a performance of Le Corsaire by the American Ballet Theater. I live for those weird cultural juxtapositions.