![]() On Eighth Avenue are dim sum spots, bubble-tea shops, and Fei Long Supermarket. On Fifth Avenue, I find Turkish, Yemeni, and Palestinian ones. Walking along Third Avenue, I come across Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Dominican restaurants. I view the myriad small businesses as a reflection of its inhabitants. The diversity of Sunset Park’s food scene reminds me of Elmhurst, where my family lived after my parents immigrated. ![]() The longer we lived here, the more deeply we fell in love with the neighborhood. Fran, one half of an elderly couple living down the hall, would bake me lasagna from time to time. One man, who used to be a guard at Rikers, lived with his husband. My husband and I rented a 450-square-foot studio apartment in a six-floor complex. Plus I was used to living on the fringes of a borough. But compared with other neighborhoods in New York City, I saw I could afford the rent here. When I moved from Queens to the border of Sunset Park seven years ago, south Brooklyn was unfamiliar to me. I wept for my city, my neighborhood, my home, the victims, this senseless act. I felt anguish and devastation, sorrow, rage, despair. In another video, EMTs surround a young Asian American man, his eyes open yet unfocused, body askew on the ground.įrom my desk, I heard fire trucks blare and helicopters whir, insistent. They showed smoke filling the platform, people fleeing and pressing their masks to their faces, a staggering, dazed man held up by another. He set off smoke grenades then pulled out a gun and fired at those closest to him.Īt home, I watched the graphic videos captured on cell phones. In the minutes the subway traveled express from 59th Street to 36th, witnesses saw him drop his hatchet. ![]() ![]() The gunman had donned a construction-worker vest and boarded the N train at 59th Street. On their way to school and work at rush hour, New Yorkers were shot, wounded, fell, suffered from panic attacks and smoke inhalation. The headlines updated throughout the day: Five injured. With mounting horror, I read about what had unfolded at the 36th Street subway station in Sunset Park, close to where I live. “Girl I read about the shooting at the sunset park subway station … hope you and fam are home and stay safe.” Tuesday, the first of what would be dozens of messages reached me: Photo: Michael Nagle/Xinhua News Agency/Getty ImagesĪt 9:45 a.m. Children playing on a jungle gym in Sunset Park. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |