I wasn’t the first person to beat a hasty retreat out of Brooklyn. Try August 8th, 1776. We were losing the battle of Long Island to the British. American casualties numbered three thousand. British, three hundred and ninety-two. General William Howe had Washington’s troops trapped on Brooklyn Heights. Washington decided, as did I sometime later, to get out of Brooklyn. He was able, almost miraculously, to ferry his eight thousand soldiers across the East River to Manhattan. Washington was on the last boat to cross. The waters had calmed for him, and a thick fog helped.
I doubt that many Brooklynites are aware of its significant history. “Breukelen” started as a Dutch farm village founded on Algonquin lands. It was the third largest city in America as early as the Civil War. It now has about three million people, about 34 percent Black, 35 percent white with a large mix of others. 46 percent of the people have a mother language other than English. In addition to Spanish there’s Russian, Yiddish, French, Italian, Creole and Arabic. Here people generally are kept within their own culture. If you’re looking for a fresh, clean, modern environment, this isn’t it! It’s a clannish community linked by underground subways and rife with crime. It is a materialist, aggressive, extremely competitive society. This was a tough place to make a living. As an attorney I believed that the significant law practice was in Manhattan, but that the large, powerful law firms were interested to know what clients you might be able to bring to the firm, to what clubs you and your family belong, where did you prep and what Ivy League schools did you attend. Were you on law review? The answer came to me. I heard the voice. It said: “Get out of Brooklyn” and I listened. I looked South to Florida.
With the invention of air conditioning I saw a chance for a better life
Hold everything. There are some very good things to be said about Brooklyn. It is the home of the Brooklyn Museum, Prospect Park, The Brooklyn Botanical Garden, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn College, The Brooklyn Bridge, and some terrific restaurants.
The Museum of Art has one of the world’s best collections of Egyptology as well as Asian and African art. It is home to Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington and a great collection of American art from Rothko to Hopper. 585 acre Prospect Park is the masterpiece of Frederick Omstead, better than Central Park. the Botanical Garden with its 52 acres and 14,000 plants is beautiful at cherry blossom time. The 150 year old Brooklyn Academy of Music known as BAM still hosts exciting performances. You can walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s fixed span of 1600 feet over the East River was John Roebling’s engineering miracle in 1883. And as for restaurants, from hot dogs at Nathan’s at Coney Island to Peter Luger’s steak house to desert at Juniors for cheese cake, they are top notch.Then stroll around the Brooklyn College campus. I truly enjoyed all of this.
You have to have something to offer. Education was that answer. There weren’t many Cornell lawyers in Florida.
My father was the first generation in our family to go to college and no one even thought of law school. He did it. Now my wife and I endow two scholarships that are awarded to the first in the family to go to college. Only in America!
Oh, by the way, one of our grandsons who attended an elite preparatory school and has three Cornell engineering degrees says that he hates Florida and wants to move to New York City. Brooklyn will do. Here we go again! ~ Lewis