6 Things I Miss About The Old Crown Heights

When I launched this website, I wanted to make sure that both my contributors and myself, while telling the stories of the neighborhood, never lost sight of Brooklyn’s original culture. Brooklyn is enormously rich in history and diversity. What was Brooklyn just 10 years ago is something totally different now and while you are to expect change, we should always make sure people are aware of what once was.

Having lived in Crown Heights for a little over 27 years and my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents raising their families here collectively over 70 years, I don’t consider myself an expert (because there is always more to learn) but I do know quite some things about this now gentrified neighborhood. While I miss a number of things I grew up on, there are 6 things in particular that make me realize, I’m in a rapidly changing neighborhood. And before more development, coffee shops and bars are added, I want to make sure there is an accurate published piece of an earlier Crown Heights, you know, the one that doesn’t only highlight the riots.

Here are 6 things I miss about the old Crown Heights:

Traveling Ice-Cream Trucks

There was a time where ice-cream trucks, on a hot summer day, would travel down the streets of Crown Heights. You would hear the music playing and run out the house (if you weren’t already outside) waving your dollar and flagging the driver down. While there are randomly located trucks around the neighborhood, it’s not the same when you don’t have to race after them.

5-cent peanut chews

We are a long way from when candy was seemingly affordable, but going to the bodega with a dollar, pre-gentrification, would buy you the world. With rising rents, candy and everything else in your local corner stores are now sometimes pricer than the supermarkets.

Affordable beauty supply shops

Hair supply shops are closing down rapidly in the neighborhood. Having to travel further for what once was one on every corner is a huge sign of the changing times. While there was a previous over abundance, there is now a shortage.
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Feeding Tree

Before Lula Bagel on Nostrand Avenue and Lincoln Place opened, there was this family-friendly Caribbean restaurant. While I love Lula Bagel, I truly miss what Feeding Tree would do for the less fortunate of the neighborhood. Every night after the restaurant stopped serving their paying customers, they would distribute meals from their leftovers, to the locals who couldn’t afford a hot meal.

Double-dutch

When I was a kid, Crown Heights’ summers were important. Children took their time off from school seriously and if your parents hadn’t sent you away to summer camp, you were outside playing with your neighbors. We would hold double-dutch competitions, water fights, races, bike rides and hand-games, all before the street-lights came on.

Close-knit communities

Everyone knew everyone. Families who lived next door or across the street looked out for you when your parents were at work. We also had amazing community policing where NYPD worked with block associations and cops from the neighborhood would work to protect their own area. The communities would trust the cops because they knew them or knew of them.

…..but cheers to the new Crown Heights!