"Emergency Landing" 60-year Anniversary of BWT

We/I have a history here…

The day we moved to BWT in 1992 was probably the hottest day of the summer; some say it was over 100 degrees out. There was partial blackout in Brooklyn because of the heat, and the elevator in the building that we moved from got out of order…Dragging boxes and furniture, my exhusband had an explosion of heat rash on his face—I had never seen anything like that.

We were poor as church mice (we had emigrated to the US in 1989 with two suitcases and a couple hundred dollars in our pocket); I was teaching all my three languages in three different school programs all over the city, and my husband was washing dishes (later he got upgraded to delivering sandwiches).

And yet, 2,5 years into our immigration, we decided to buy a condo apartment—such an American thing to do: the grit, the drive! We decided that we would pick up dollar bills from the sidewalks later…and we used the customary immigrant financial aid system, the immigrant SBER KASSA: we asked our cousins, uncles, and grandparents to chip in to help us with the downpayment. We brought with us to the new apt some donated furniture and chairs and tables that we had found in the street.

The day of the move, we asked a few friends to help us lug in the stuff. A neighbor next door named Rose, a stout beautiful elderly woman with an elegant silver French roll, for hours occupied our daughter with a conversation over the balcony divider. Since that day Rose and Pauline (an 80-year-old and an 8-year-old) became close, and almost every night Pauline would stop by Rose’s home to watch Full House on TV and to eat cookies.

Collapsing in one of the crates at the end of that exhausting day, among upside-down chairs and unpacked boxes, I was wiping the sweat from my face, gazing at the beautiful green lawn and the blue swimming pool and thinking: the ‘emergency landing’ has turned into a home…

My younger daughter, Julia, befriended our other neighbor, Sylvia, a short scrawny senior, who spoke in nasal Yiddishized Brooklyn accent. Every day Sylvia did a brisk walk in the 4th floor hallway from one end to another as a form of exercise, and Julia, a toddler, walked with her, holding 3 her hand or crawled ahead of her or raced her with a ball...I would leave the door of the apt open a crack and could hear their sweet chats—in Brooklynese and in semi-Russian baby language –the bridge between continents and between past and present. This is history; we have a history here.

Both Rose and Sylvia, who lived on social security checks, had moved into the BWT spacious new apartments with the views of Coney Island beaches, when the complex was part of Mitchell-Lama subsidized housing program with 735 units, built on the spare slot in 1964 (60 years ago) as a result of a public debate about whether it would be better to build the housing project for middle-class people or a much needed parking lot in the busy Luna Park area. The subsidized affordable housing won. 20 years later, all 59 Mitchell-Lama projects across the city became eligible to leave the program—and only 5 did. Brightwater Towers was one of them—and became the condominium we know today.

Learning the area’s history and writing about it was my way to make an ‘emergency landing’ my permanent home. Here are a few selected relevant facts:

Asser Levy Park across the street, recently redesigned and rejuvenated, was named after the first Jewish citizen of New Netherland (=New York) who had emigrated from Brazil in 1654 and became the first Jew to serve in a militia and to own property. He was the founder of the country’s first Jewish congregation.

The Sydney Jones Bandshell was named after the first labor union organizer and the head of Brighton Division of Brooklyn Arts and Culture Association, who was instrumental in building the summer concert venue, which featured once Liza Minelli, Patti LaBelle, and Michael Bolton.

The subway line terminal in Coney Island was completed in 1920, so for 5 cents the train took huge crowds from the city to the beach and to Luna Park (before then, one could reach the city resort area, Coney Island, by ferries). At the same time, the four-mile boardwalk was built along the beach from Brighton Beach to Sea Gate. One million people came to the famous resort each summer day.

The history of Luna Park is complicated because over the years since the end of 19th century it changed hands and combined several amusement parks: Steeplechase, Dreamland, Astroland…

Coney Island Childs Restaurant (which was the focus of a few of my stories) at the intersection of the Boardwalk and West 21 Street, next to a new outside concert venue, was part of the restaurant chain started in 1889 by two brothers, Samuel and William Childs, whose establishments were all over Manhattan. Its main decorative feature matches the festive resort with motifs of wriggling fish, gargoyle heads, sailing ships, and sea god Neptune. In 2003, the former Childs restaurant building (now restaurant Zula), was granted a NYC Historical Landmark status.