NabeWise

Stuy Town is great Nick Gilbert

I come down and visit a good friend of mine in Stuyvesant Town and it is really great. I live in Brooklyn and while it is a real pain to get there from where I live I imagine most people who live there do not work in Brooklyn, so that can’t be an issue. His apartment is wicked big and the whole “living in a park” thing is stellar. Also, there are black squirrels. If I could afford it I would move there in a heartbeat.

i like it here Nick Gilbert

I’ve worked for an internet start-up in Williamsburg for a couple of months and I like it out here. It is a real pain to find a normal sandwich, they tend to be named, organic sandwiches on specialty bread, delicious and expensive, but that is just my provincial tastes shining through. I’ve seen some shows here and my band rehearses here too. I like it here and I also like that if it really came down to it and I had to fight someone in Williamsburg, I could probably take most of the malnourished dudes in this neck of the woods.

Pain to get to Nick Gilbert

I went down to Red Hook with my buddy and his mother. It was a pain in the ass to get to because it is wicked far away from Crown Heights by train. We went down specifically for these dumplings she had seen on the Food Network and wouldn’t you know it, closed on Mondays. It was a whole bunch of malarkey but the area was really rundown and there were some abandoned factories about. The graffiti was really good but if you aren’t into that sort of thing there was a fair amount of it.

love the idea of Park Slope Nick Gilbert

I am in love with the idea of Park Slope. It seems like a tight little community of nice shops and stuff but it might end up boring me. I hit the movies in Park Slope regularly and a nice walk through the Slope afterwards is the tops. 7th avenue has the sort of small town Main Street feel I love too.

Love this area Nick Gilbert

I have been down to Fort Greene a number of times and I love it. BAM shows great movies and the food is great, I was particularly fond of Der Schwarze Kolner. During the summer there is even a sweet free film series at a bar in Fort Greene. The people seem to be really nice there and I plan on looking into some real estate here pretty soon. There are a ton of famous residents in and around here too, like Mos Def, They Might Be Giants, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Fort Greene is kind of the Chelsea of Brooklyn complete with a gay-friendly/alternative lifestyle community.

Crown Height South distinction Nick Gilbert

So evidently there is a distinction to be made between Crown Heights and Crown Heights South and now that I think about it the distinction is not unreasonable. CHS has more high-rises, a project, and a college, as well as some of Crown Heights’ nicest homes. CHN is like a slightly more upscale and uniform version of CHS. CHS feels less safe to me but maybe this is just some perceived, non-existent threat.

wicked cheap area Nick Gilbert

Crown Heights is a wicked cheap area to live in and that is one of its most appealing points, to be honest. I moved here from New Hampshire and my place suits me fine for now but it was just renovated; the paint was drying when we were moving in. I like it here but I’ll probably move out when the lease is up in June. The Caribbean Festival was incredible and I’ll be back for that if nothing else. Franklin Park, the bar, is an awesome hangout with a mean caiprinha but that doesn’t make up for the amount of litter I see around all the time.

Sweet Nick Gilbert

Coney Island was sweet. I went there in early fall when it was starting to cool down and it was wicked cold and blustery but, despite that, there were enough people there for me to feel a little uncomfortable. The line at Nathan’s was retarded but I waited my turn with my remote and was rewarded with one of the finest corndogs I’ve ever eaten. This will only make sense to a handful of people but it reminded me of the Weirs if it were a part of Canobie Lake Park.

Not a bad area Nick Gilbert

I regularly have to hike through the south of Bed-Stuy to get to work. I spend most of my time in Bed-Stuy on the commercial jaunts and while there are some rundown places and some eateries I wouldn’t frequent, it seems nice. The areas I’ve seen have been alright, very similar to Crown Heights although, as I understand it, slightly less West Indian. Fulton is really on the up and up and I look forward to seeing this area develop further.

Keep me away from here Nick Gilbert

Midtown is about the kitschiest, loudest, most annoying place in the whole wide world I think. I am not thin and I am not fast but walking behind the slow tourists in Midtown is EXCRUTIATING. Obviously, as a New Hampshire native whenever my family comes they want to go down there and I won’t pretend like there aren’t some nice restaurants in Midtown but I would rather eat at McDonald’s most days than brave the crowds in Midtown.

hipster central Nick Gilbert

The Lower East Side is hipster central but there are some awesome shows to see down here. The bar scene around the Lower East Side is legendary so this shouldn’t come as a surprise but it is pretty busy and not a place I would bring my little brothers, I don’t think. It’s the kind of place where you find a hookah bar. Cool people wearing cool clothes.

a ton of great places to eat Nick Gilbert

One of the first places I’d ever been when I came to New York as an adult to visit friends was the East Village. We specifically went down to hit Pommes Frites because what is better than fries right? My experience down there is that there are a ton of great places to eat, bars to hit like McSorley’s (seriously, even if you’ve lived in the city your entire life you need to be at McSorley’s), and things to do. East Village is the kind of place you think of when you’re thinking of Manhattan.

I work in Chelsea Nick Gilbert

I work in Chelsea at the Blockbuster there and Chelsea is a nice little community. For the most part the community is alternative lifestyle and Hispanic. There is a ton of great food, bars, and shops around and the people are usually really cool. I have never had a second there where I didn’t feel safe and my female co-workers I’m sure would agree with me. Chelsea is great.