Monday, May 19, 2008

What's the Word?

The Columbia Street Waterfront District in Brooklyn, NY is a great, but often overlooked neighborhood. Visitors to nearby Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill often think that Brooklyn stops at the BQE, and stick to the slew of restaurants, stores, and bars on that side of it. Residents on that side of town also fail to venture over here as much as they should, as they have so many places of their own to choose from and no reliance on our transportation choices, as many of us have on theirs.

Down to the South, the grittier and often-hyped neighborhood of Red Hook (which the CSWD is technically part of, according to many) gets a lot more attention as well. Maybe it's the fact that the name is catchier, as well as easier to remember and pronounce. Or, maybe it's the fact that its unique mix of industry, housing, storefronts, and people, despite being similar to our own, is is even more extreme and noteworthy. It also probably provides a truer sense of adventure to those people that hear about all of the above and decide to make the trek into the neighborhood with even few transportation options than our own.

As a result of all this, the Columbia St. Waterfront District also seems to be lacking in any cohesive blogs. There are blogs by individuals about themselves or their businesses, and there are Broooklyn or Citywide blogs that mention the area, but there seem to be none that do what we plan to do: provide an all-encompassing look at the neighborhood by providing descriptions and profiles of events, activities, stores, restaurants, bars, people, places, spaces, issues, news, and everything that goes down on and around Columbia St - from Atlantic to Hamilton and from the BQE to the water.

We'll occasionally throw in a post about stuff we like in nearby neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Gowanus, and Red Hook as well, as its hard to live in the CSWD without strolling through them, but they do already get a lot of attention.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the blog! My husband, son and I love living here and we look forward to reading your posts about the neighborhood!

Brett said...

I live on Henry Street but spend a lot of time on the other side of the BQE. It's a great area. But is it the Columbia Street Waterfront District, Columbia Waterfront, Columbia Heights, Carroll Gardens West or Red Hook? Everyone has a different name!

Chris B. said...

Thanks for the comments! We chose to run with the Columbia Street Waterfront District name because thats the one that we've encountered the most. However, there is definitely somewhat of an identity crisis in the area, which isn't helped by the wordiness of that name. Keep checking back!