My Old Hood

Even though I don't live in Brooklyn anymore, I still cyberstalk my old Kensington neighborhood and find out what's going on there. I read recently that a median was put in on Caton Avenue between Ocean Parkway and Ocean Avenue after a child was killed in a hit and run accident a year or so ago. I've also read about (and seen pictures of) new apartments going up in the area. I've been reading about the proposal to run the F train express from Jay Street to Church Avenue which is drawing a lot of criticism and praise. The express would have been great for me during the ride home. I would have just gotten in the last car and walked home from the Church Avenue stop, but I doubt I would have walked to Church in the morning to catch the train from there when the Fort Hamilton Parkway stop was much closer.

People ask me all the time if I miss New York and I do, but I don't see myself moving back there for a variety of reasons. A: The cost of living is too high. B: Being on the grind in New York is exhausting. C: New York was killing me from the inside. Seriously, my physical health was suffering in the city. Still, I largely enjoyed my time there and if I had the money, I might go back, but not to live there permanently. Those days are over. I was talking to a former co-worker a while back who had also left New York and moved back to her hometown of Chicago. She told me she and her husband wanted to go back. I looked at her, pregnant with her third child, and thought, "You're not going back." Three kids in New York? Dream on, dreamer! She only had one child when we worked together in New York and now she's got three. Yeah, your New York days are over, sister, unless you or your husband hit the lottery or come into some large money.