I’m trying to think of an urban territory that exudes more deep-down misery than the shitty parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Dull tenement buildings, miles and miles of gloom…cornucopias of character-free, hand-me-down ugliness.
I’ve roamed around the boring, dull-as-dishwater outskirts of many European cities (Paris, London, Rome, Berlin, Barcelona, Geneva, Belgrade), and while these regions are rarely what any visitor would call intriguing or delightful or agreeably colorful, none feel as culturally gutted or meaningless as downmarket Brooklyn or Queens (East Midwood, Bensonhurst, Canarsie, East Flatbush, Brownsville, South Ozone Park).
What a ghastly proposition for a resident of these nabes to stand on a streetcorner and look around and say, “Yup, this is it…I”ll be spending the rest of my life here.”