W: Walking Brooklyn

When I attended Book Expo America this past spring with Michelle, I picked up an advance copy of Adrienne Onofri’s Walking Brooklyn (Wilderness Press, 2007) with the intention of making it the “W” of my Brooklyn alphabet. I was not disappointed. The small book (perfect for carrying in your bag) details 30 different Brooklyn neighborhood walks. Kyle and I often take off on our own circuitous routes through Bed-Stuy or Prospect Heights, but with this book, you actually have a friendly tour guide by your side. Each walk includes maps and bullet points of historical, cultural, and architectural information. For example, Onofri explains what’s up with Farrell’s, the old-time bar near my Windsor Terrace apartment that my roommates and I always wonder about:

“Farrell’s is said to be one of the first bars opened in Brooklyn after Prohibition was repealed. Cops, firefighters, and neighborhood loyalists love Farrell’s, which was featured in a scene with Helen Hunt and Shirley Knight in the Oscar-winning flick As Good As It Gets” (92).

V: Vanderbilt Avenue

I’ve been a frequent rider of the 69 bus, which traverses Vanderbilt Avenue, for the past 2 years. The section between Grand Army Plaza and Atlantic Avenue in Prospect Heights is constantly evolving. There’s an interesting mixture of old and new–a faded ad for Brooklyn BBQ is painted on the side of a building right next to a tiny French cafe. It’s a beautiful, brownstone-y stretch of blocks, and one ripe for visiting. Next time you’re in the area, get off the bus and take a stroll.

Q: Q-train

Brooklyn’s got its share of MTA subway trains. While many people wax poetic about the literary F or root for the underdog G, my affections lie with the fast, reliable Q. It’s more of a functional relationship than one filled with drama and passion, but hey, maybe those are the ones that last anyway.

My vote for the Q is based mainly on two great features:

• neighborhoods traversed
• express status

The Q stops at a lot of my favorite neighborhoods as it snakes its way through the borough of kings. The DeKalb stop is a pleasant walk from Fort Greene and Clinton Hill (and across the block from Junior’s for all your cheese cake/egg cream needs) and Atlantic Avenue is a Brooklyn transportation hub and home of clothes and home improvement genius Target (what do you say to that, Manhattan?). The 7th Ave/Flatbush stop is perfect for reaching both Prospect Heights and Park Slope. The next two stops take you to the North and East sides of Prospect Park, and then you get the Brooklyn College area, the lettered avenues (Avenue Q!), and finally Coney Island.

Even better than the diversity of neighborhoods crossed is the speed with which the Q gets you to them. From DeKalb to Union Square is just 2 stops! Want to visit Pearl Paint for some art supplies or get dim sum in Chinatown? The Q will get you there from Park Slope in 15 minutes. And for some reason the Q seems to have a lot less construction delays than some of the other lines.

So if you’re in the market for a new Brooklyn rental, consider making proximity to the Q train high up on your list of requirements.

O: Ocean Adventure

While we’ve yet to create any of our own Forever 22 podcasts, one of my favorite This American Life radio stories details an ocean adventure right in Brooklyn’s backyard.

The episode, In the Shadow of the City, first aired in February of this year. Each of the three acts features a hidden urban adventure–crazy stories happening in major metropolises, somehow just out of sight. Act one is “Brooklyn Archipelago.” It’s the hilarious tale of Alex Zharov, a sweet-sounding guy who gets shipwrecked on a tiny Jamaica Bay island during a day out with friends.

Alex takes the whole adventure very seriously, as well a shipwrecked young man should, I suppose, but imagining him making smoke signals and worrying about dehydration just miles from Time’s Square’s crowds tickles me every time.

So plug some headphones into your computer and eat lunch at your desk while listening to the show. Even if you’re stuck in an overly air conditioned office, you can still get out on Brooklyn’s water with Alex and This American Life.

Neckface’s Urban Wink

The F train travels above ground for 2 stops in Brooklyn, and so, every morning on my commute into Manhattan, I try to make the most of these four precious minutes of light. During the rest of the ride I distract myself from the impending doom of cubicle life with music or podcasts, but here the city does that job itself. There’s a subway exit that goes directly from the subterranean Canal stop into my office building, which means that, especially in winter, this can be my only contact with New York City in the daytime.

Airfare Made Easy

This comes from a hotel room in Chicago, so I thought I’d post our first travel entry. We plan on talking a lot about travel deals on this blog. In general, those deals don’t come on airplanes, but sometimes air travel is unavoidable.

Most travel websites focus on travel packages or travelers with very specific schedule restraints. This sort of travel works well for business travelers and families planning vacations. Those of us in the post college set will usually take a cheap late night flight and a friend’s futon over even a moderately priced airline-hotel package. Two websites cater to the cheapest among us, one you probably know about and one you probably don’t.