Goodbye Kensington. Hello Krappy Kensington

Church Ave. and Ocean Parkway. These pics are from some dude's site, I don't remember the name of it. I saved the pics to use as wallpaper and screensavers.



I know these out of towners dont mean and intend harm. Obviously though, to certain people and families, harm has been caused by the wonders of gentrification in places such as,,,,, whatever, you already know them.

As with many of, us when it comes to an endless number of issues, the out of towners just don't care about their affect on others. (the others being the long time residents.)

The first issue is always the high cost of rent that they always seem to activate. It must good to be one of those "starving, struggling, making ends meet artists" who can pay whatever. Now, I love my neighborhood and I know New York City in general is an expensive place to be but I'm sorry Kensington isn't that great and thats totally fine with me. It's not some sort of Eden in the city. Rents in this place should not be near the thousand range. Single bedroom apartments shouldn't be at or anywhere close to a $G per month. And that is what gets the ball rolling. It is little things that add up that make the residents move.

The high rents become set, and it seems that coffee houses and restaurants are the prime objective of what the out of towners want(they want to make life an episode of friends or something) never satisfied with whats here. The surrounding businesses take notice of the influx and infiltration and raise their prices (the grocery store on caton ave. between ocean parkway and E.7th is ridiculously priced. And is that a midtown manhattan pizzeria you eating at with those insane prices??? Nope, you're just eating at Korner pizza where the pizza is pretty wack and the prices sky high). Again, no one wants rents to raise and stores to raise their prices, but it happens it. They don't mean harm they just don't care about who they are affecting. (Sort of like politicians)

Theres nothing you can do about the infiltration. Its well under way. Resistance is futile unfortunately. Its like all those who oppose the Nets building their arena in Brooklyn. They're no match for the Nets and the new arena and neither are we any match for the "artists" and other yups.

Back in the day

The Beverly Theater

I cant really imagine a theater being on Church Ave. today but there used to be. It stood there not that long ago actually between McDonald and E.2nd, it was still around in the early 80's.

2 doors down, I'm pretty sure that's Scarola's restaurant which said goodbye not too long ago, it was still around in the mid-late 90's. It's a real estate office now. You know which one.

Now, what the hell is up with people trying to extend the boundaries of Kensington? You know what I'm talking about.


I'm Outtie 5k, later.

In the next millineium i'll still be old school

Thats the intersection of Church Ave. and McDonald Ave. Who knew silver rod goes way back like that? and the greater is now obviously Astoria Federal.

I don't go as far back as that but I remember The Greater, Waldbaums where rite aid is now, cow tree barber shop, The Beverly Theater (ok, its really only one vague memory of falling asleep watching superman 2 and I might not be totally positive it was the Beverly but still)

Kensington Brooklyn. Great place but why do these new comers want to change it so badly and make it Park Slope or Williamsburg or some other hipster/yuppie haven. They want coffee shops, they want bars, they want this, they want that. Why cant they just be happy with what is here and what is here is plenty.

I seriously think the new comer people who want all these things here hate any kind of traveling. They expect everything to come to them. They say they don't want to change this place into Park Slope but the things they want will do just that. You know I'm sure that when Park Slope had their influx of out-of-towners they used to say, "we don't want to make this place Manhattan. We're not trying to change it. we just want some nice things here" and then BAM! Fort Greene out-of-towners - "We don't want to force anyone out. We just want some places to drink coffee and discuss art blah,blah,blah" and then BAM! Eventually Brooklyn is going to be the same exact thing in each neighborhood, high rents and cornballs as residents.

You can easily enjoy whatever yuppie thing you crave by taking the train like 2 stops and going to Park Slope. Its less than 5 minutes! And besides theres already bars here. Whats wrong with Shenanigans? Dennys? Too many blue collar workers for you? Not enough peeps with shaggy haircuts, t-shirts 2 sizes too small, and black hipster rimmed glasses? well why don't you just use that same "takeover the neighborhood" mentality and apply it to those places.

Anything you NEED you can easily get around here. Anything you WANT is just but a train ride away.


--holla back dun