Robots March on Brooklyn

I live in Brooklyn. Carroll Gardens. Previously known simply as South Brooklyn. A neighborhood known for longshoremen, Italians, bakeries, soppresatta, lawn chairs and funeral homes. Or at least, known to me for these qualities. Actually, the neighborhood is known for having both front and back gardens for each brownstone. The Los Angeles Times (via Gothamist) did a nice little video ... here it is:



Brooklyn used to be a place to get more square footage for less money. Manhattanites moved out to the 718 and brought their Maclaren strollers, enrolled in prenatal yoga at Area, overwhelmed the farmers market in Grand Army Plaza and generally overpopulated the place to the extent that the F train is always crowded and usually painfully late. I'm one of them, sans stroller or prenatal anything. I've been to the farmer's market once. It was nice.

The emblem of all that is yuppie reprehensible in Brooklyn is Park Slope. There's a whole 'thing' brewing over the rising cost of real estate pushing out even the nice folks making a meager six figures. Blog comments are racist and rude, obscenities fly, even those who got off the boat from the East Village three months ago are rallying to the cry of 'there goes the neighborhood.' I like to think that these neighborhoods can be reclaimed by nature (or economics) - grass, trees, weeds all grow up through the cracks in the cement, ivy overtakes mortar and slowly destroys a brick building, and a few well-timed stabbings and shootings on the hipster circuit can reclaim Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Park Slope, and South Brooklyn, rendering it safe only for those brave enough to get off the subway at night. Frankly, it's a bunch of shite. Neighborhoods change - the people who owned those lots and buildings since converted to condos and co-ops made a pretty penny in the process and should take some responsibility for the changes in that neighborhood. They could have kept their Italian longshoremen's families in the nabe, but they wanted to sell out and move out just as much as the yuppies and hipsters were willing to buy in and move in. If they don't stay forever - well, blame the permalancer economy.

I digress. It's also possible that my jet lag is getting the better of my reasoning and sentence construction. So I'll cut to the robot chase - or rather, the robot parade. Some Park Slopians held a robot parade awhile back...



They weren't selling anything. There was no particular purpose to it. It was fun - I'm sorry I missed it. To check out the flickr feed, go here.