In Memoriam: 10 Much Mourned Brooklyn Institutions
Brighton Beach Racing Association
Brighton Beach is a pretty fun place today. There’s tons of sour cream-heavy cuisine, each dish liberally feathered with dill (which can be a controversial herb, but I like it) and plenty of shots of ice-cold vodka to be had while sitting on a boardwalk populated by men with red noses playing chess on overturned garbage cans. What’s not to like? But Brighton Beach has gone through many iterations, including its time as a summer resort in the 1930s through 50s (memorialized in Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs) and its time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a magnet for performers due to the Brighton Beach Music Hall. But, what I miss most of all, is the Brighton Beach Racing Association. Founded in 1879, the BBRA started off as a horse track and eventually evolved (once anti-gambling laws became more stringent) into a track for automobile racing and even aviation demonstrations. I know that there are other places to go watch horse-racing, but how many other places are in Brooklyn (none) or by the ocean (none)? This institution seems so firmly set in a time and place when development in Brooklyn was not based purely on how many new apartments could be built, a time when it was a little like the Wild West and there was little to no regulation, at least at the beginning of certain ventures.
Honorary Mention: The OTBs that used to heavily populate this city. Gambling is just not as easy as it once was. I miss that.