In the loving memory of my grandmother Yordanka Todorova
Dec 18th 1918 - Feb 18th 2008
It is February and technically, it is time for another Cooking High episode. The truth is, walking down on Hancock Street I noticed once again how beautiful my neighborhood is. Century old brownstones pleat through the tree lined sidewalks with sandstone stairways, round wooden doors, and stain glass windows. In the summer kids play Double Dutch on the street and old men gather on the stoop of one ‘s house to share stories, people watch, and hang out. Music is coming out of cars, windows, and some times even speakers put out on the sidewalk. Like Biggie says Bed-Stuy is “the livest one”. Smell of food is in the air as soon as the sun warms up the Brooklyn streets and house music echoes through the summer Sunday evenings in Von King Park.
Bedford Stuyvesant is one of the oldest free black communities in the U.S. and a cultural center for the African American population in Brooklyn. Among the natives of this area are Shirley Chisholm, Notorious B.I.G., Chris Rock, Lena Horne, Mos Def, and James "Rocky" Robinson. I even heard that Coltrane once lived on my block and I believe it because I swear I can hear music when I step out of my apartment. This is the place I call home 4882 miles away from where I was born.
Although it has been considered a desirable neighborhood in the last two or three years with new small businesses and organic food section in the grocery store, I remember very well when people would not come to visit me or just raise their eyebrows when I tell them where I live. The stigma of the “do or die” years is still clearly visible from the careless thrown garbage on the sidewalks to the boarded houses or empty lots full of junk that are often part of the landscape. Call that urban charm if you want but it is simply poverty.
But Bed Stuy wasn’t always a ghetto; in the late 1800s the village of Bedford was an exclusive and highly desirable suburb for rich New Yorkers of Dutch and German descent. Market pressure led to rapid urbanization of the area: “the suburban district of freestanding frame and brick homes was gradually transformed into a more urban neighborhood of brick and brownstone row houses.” Crucial for popularizing the area was the construction of the electric trolleys and the Fulton Street Elevated. With the rapid urbanization the demographics of the neighborhood changed dramatically. Jews, Italians, West Indians, Irish and other ethnic groups settled in this declining yet still comparatively appealing area. Many homeowners were becoming too poor to pay their property taxes or just wanted to sell before their property devaluated further. The depreciation was corresponded to the massive migration of black Southerners and West Indians to New York that began in the 1910s and 20s. Bedford became port of call for black immigrants due to its proximity to already existing Black communities in Weeksville, Carrsville, and Fort Green. The brownstones quickly switched ownership and Black in-comers filled up the houses abandoned by previous immigrants but not without the resistance of white homeowners who tried to persuade people not to or simply refused to sell to the black newcomers. Often black families were forced to pay $20 000 for a house that at the time was sold for $3000. The construction of the A train in the 1930s made the commute between Harlem and Bedford much easier and many people came from uptown to central Brooklyn, which offered more jobs and better housing. Institutionalized racism, segregation, economic crisis, unemployment, and predatory real estate practices were some of the main reasons for the decline and “slumification” of Bedford-Stuyvesant. “The schools were not receiving adequate support, city services and public works were almost non-existent,” and the police is still feared rather than reassuring. In the late 70’s and early 80’s crack hit the streets and some of the darkest times begun. For a glimps of what is it like to live in the ghetto just play a Biggie record and you’ll get a pretty good idea.