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“Where do you live?”

            “Brooklyn.”

            “Oh shoot, do you hear gunshots at night?”

            Too often, many of my classmates wrongly stereotype that Brooklyn is really “ghetto” or violent. With my school located in the northern Bronx and a majority of my peers from Queens and Manhattan, my home is in the “minority” neighborhood. But it’s definitely not a bad thing for me. Taking the hour and a half train ride everyday to school for the most part doesn’t even bother or frustrate me. Because not that many people come from this borough, I have even grown to appreciate and be more proud of my community.

Tucked in the southwest corner of Brooklyn, is a quiet neighborhood called Bay Ridge. It has been my home ever since I was born and to be honest, at times, I can’t imagine living anywhere else in NewYork City. Even though it is still in the city, Bay Ridge sometimes reminds me of one of those creepy small towns in the scary movies… especially at night. One of the pharmacies near my home still has a slightly vague reminiscence of a Victorian-style feel to it. 

    When I was little, I was always scared of the “Gingerbread House” which is across from Fort Hamilton High School. My apartment building is separated from the neighborhood stores by a long and usually vacant sidewalk.On the sides of the street are entrances to mini dirt paths that are surrounded by trees and tall grass. There is also Owl’s Head Park which is 27.1 acres of trees, hills and grasslands.

But what I love most about my neighborhood is the 69^th Street Veterans Memorial Pier which has a pathway for bikers, joggers, roller bladders, fishermen and pedestrians that stretches from Bay Ridge to Bensonhurst. Biking on this road, I can smell the waters of the NewYork Bay, look across to see Staten Island, Manhattan, and the Statue of Liberty, and go under the historical Verrazano Bridge. It sounds cliché, but simply put, biking and living in this part of Brooklyn just gives me a sense of tranquility and relaxation…instead of fear, as some of my classmates like to think.

After a long day in Manhattan, Bay Ridge is an escape from the city in the city.