86th St, Bay Ridge

This large Brooklyn thoroughfare starts at the waterfront in Bay Ridge, crosses through Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst, and then ends near Gravesend at the border to Coney Island. The part that runs through Bay Ridge, from the waterfront to about the Gowanus Expressway, functions as a main street and shopping area for Bay Ridge. The street is lined with every kind of store you would expect to find in a mall in suburban America: the standard electronics stores, karate schools, Gap, cheap furniture stores, telecommunications shops, costume jewelry stores, hair cutters, and on and on. The products on offer are so typical of middle-class suburbia that you might think you are walking through a cliché version of it. Maybe a nightmare version of it, drained completely of any soul or distinctive markings. The mix of residents, however, is striking in this area. On a typical afternoon, you can see schoolgirls in parochial Catholic uniforms, young Jewish Orthodox mothers pushing baby carriages, and Muslim women wearing head scarves and long robes. It's very clear that the people who have settled here to raise children and live out modest middle class lives, are from an array of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Somehow they all live in harmony in Bay Ridge, and all frequent these same shops on 86th Street. Which is why the stores on 86th Street, with their banal and soul-less products, their cliché decoration and offerings, are all the more surprising. If there are any niche stores that cater to specific ethnic or immigrant groups, then they must be somewhere on the side streets. Depending on how you look at it, this street is either a nightmare of suburban sterility, or the ultimate embodiment of the American Dream.

I have to say 86th Street is one of the most convenient and nicest neighbors in Brooklyn. There are a lot of Chinese, Italians and Russians live there. So you can easily find many great Italian Pizza stores around this street where you can have the best pizza around the world. Also there are a lot of convenient stores run by Chinese where you can get some really good deal. The subway lines go along this street. So you can imagine how easy to commute here, but meanwhile a little bit too noisy sometimes. What I am trying to say is that it is not really good for everyone. But if you are singles or couples, come here!

86th Street is a nice residential street in Brooklyn. There are no businesses on this street, but there are plenty of housing options. In the form of older row homes, it lacks the classic beauty of Brooklyn, but definitely has its own charm. The area is very convenient with the A and C train running conveniently on the avenue parallel, keeping the neighborhood easily accessible to midtown and other parts of the city. All in all, a nice and quiet street in Brooklyn.