Well, it’s finally happened. After spending the better part of three terms seeing Brooklyn as a place for the well-connected and rich to get more rich, Mike Bloomberg has finally realized there are some nice things to see here too. Recognizing that, the city has started a tourism push to get people out of Times Square and Central Park and into Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn. And given its hip new cultural cache, Brooklyn is the first borough to get an extra push from City Hall. Get ready to see all those people from high school you were desperately trying to get way from!
The program, called “Neighborhood x Neighborhood” (writing “x” instead of “by,” so hot right now) the program is meant to highlight the fact that there’s more to see in New York than whatever was featured on Gossip Girl. So basically, a freeform version of the Girls bus tour. The first neighborhoods the city is telling tourists to check out are Bushwick, Fort Greene and Williamsburg. The press release touts the many places to see in each neighborhood, and while there’s nothing terribly offensive about it, there are still some howlers.
Like, for example, the city finally recognizing the G train exists by mentioning it in the list of trains Williamsburg is accesible by. Hope you don’t wait for it on a weekend where the MTA can’t afford to run it normally is doing “track work!” And while recommending people visit Roberta’s while in Bushwick is old news at this point, telling them to stop by The Loom because it’s super unique is a little suspect. It’s a fucking mall. There’s no Urban Outfitters or GameStop there, but it’s an indoor shopping space. Oh, but the building used to be something else? Carry on.
Anyway, we eagerly await the first time a group of Okies walks into Roberta’s and can’t handle the idea of the “Cheeses Christ” pie or another naked waitress, should be a hoot. Maybe by then, Mayor Mike will even be able to correctly say the name of McCarren Park.