Born and raised in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, I have been able to see the changes within my neighborhood over the last 18 years. Growing up, the dominant culture in my neighborhood has been polish. The streets are cluttered with polish food stands, polish restaurants, stores selling polish goods, and the people in my neighborhood have always been predominantly of polish descent; however, in the coming years, there has been a growing number of Americans flooding into my neighborhood. Greenpoint’s current Americanization is attributed to stores like Peter Pan, Brooklyn Mac, Brooklyn Industries, and Cookie Road which are causing different ethnicities to pour in. I feel as though my community is fighting back against this Americanization, striving to retain the cultural identity it has possessed for the last 18 years.
Over the last 18 years I have been able to notice the influence of the dominant culture on my neighborhood. There are a variety of stores in my neighborhood, many of them cater to the needs of the polish people in my neighborhood by selling products that are polish or have polish labels. Most of my shopping is done directly in my neighborhood for this reason. The stores in my neighborhood, particularly this 99cent store on Manhattan Avenue, make polish goods accessible and readily available to polish people like me. There are several 99cent stores in my neighborhood, but this one in particular sells many polish goods ranging from soaps and creams to foods like jarred pickles and assorted polish chocolates. In this picture you see polish soap with the label “mydlo” and a company named “Sanel” that sells callus removers (which in polish are called “pumex”). The irony of this store, however, lies in the fact that the owners are not polish, but are Asian. Rather than marketing Asian products, this 99cent store markets goods that it knows will sell to the public - goods with polish labels or jarred products by companies like Lowell, which have a specific line of goods imported from Poland.
Over the last 18 years I have been able to notice the influence of the dominant culture on my neighborhood. There are a variety of stores in my neighborhood, many of them cater to the needs of the polish people in my neighborhood by selling products that are polish or have polish labels. Most of my shopping is done directly in my neighborhood for this reason. The stores in my neighborhood, particularly this 99cent store on Manhattan Avenue, make polish goods accessible and readily available to polish people like me. There are several 99cent stores in my neighborhood, but this one in particular sells many polish goods ranging from soaps and creams to foods like jarred pickles and assorted polish chocolates. In this picture you see polish soap with the label “mydlo” and a company named “Sanel” that sells callus removers (which in polish are called “pumex”). The irony of this store, however, lies in the fact that the owners are not polish, but are Asian. Rather than marketing Asian products, this 99cent store markets goods that it knows will sell to the public - goods with polish labels or jarred products by companies like Lowell, which have a specific line of goods imported from Poland.
Similar to how the 99cent stores in my neighborhood cater to my needs, there is a vegetable stand called “Poland Farm Fruit and Vegetable” where polish people flock to. Whenever I go in or pass by this vegetable store, I see polish people interacting with the cashier, who too is polish. If she sees that you are visibly of her race, she will speak to you in polish and count your change in polish. Because I am not fluent in my language, it irritates me when cashiers in stores like Associated and this polish fruit stand talk to me in my native tongue. It’s as though being polish forms a kinship between the cashier and I; however, I get uncomfortable when I’m put in situations where I have to speak my own language because I know my manner of speaking differs from the way in which those in my neighborhood speak my language. The polish people in my neighborhood are all fluent in the language and they speak with great rapidity. When they encounter someone who doesn’t speak english, however, they begin to experience the feelings I do because they have to transition from speaking fluent polish to choppy english. When an Asian woman went into the vegetable stand to purchase her goods, I noticed the uncomfortability with which the cashier bagged her goods and counted her change. The cashier felt more comfortable interacting with the polish people she feels culturally connected to, and less comfortable with the Asian woman who she had to speak english to. The picture depicts the lack of diversity in my neighborhood as the Asian woman is surrounded by several polish woman. Since I frequently shop at this vegetable stand, I took this picture while waiting online to pay for lemons. While patiently waiting for the line to shrink, the polish lady behind me asked in our native tongue if I could please hold her spot in line. I feel as though this experience is emblematic of the dominant culture within my community - because we are all of polish descent, we feel a sort of kinship towards one another, inadvertently excluding anyone who is not polish.
The dominant culture within my neighborhood has a big influence on the stores within my community. The cuisine available is greatly impacted by polish people because there are many restaurants that serve polish food. Within a two block radius of my neighborhood’s public library there are several polish eateries including the polish “Antek Restaurant” and a popular restaurant across from the Dunkin Donuts on Nassau Avenue called “Polonia”. While passing by the restaurant during Spring break I noticed a polish woman walking into it so I decided to take a picture of it because I felt like it encompassed the culture of my neighborhood. Inside of the restaurant there is a sort of buffet with a person who serves typical polish cuisine like potatoes, salads, and cabbage. On the windows of the restaurant there are pictures of the foods that it serves, as well as the words “Polskie Obiady” which translates to “Polish Dinners”. I commonly do not eat at polish restaurants because I don’t like the ambiance within the restaurants. “Antek Restaurant” in particular is an uncomfortable place to dine in because the others who dine there are usually loud and rude polish people that I don’t identify myself with. They are the type of polish people who will wait for their food to be served to their table, though the restaurant itself is known for calling its orders out loud and having them picked up at the front of the restaurant. They also leave a mess at their table rather than going to the front of the restaurant and putting their used dishes in a place where the employees can quickly clean them. Their impolite and haughty behavior makes me dislike polish people because it gives me the impression that they are all the same and I would not want to identify with people who are loud and obnoxious. Overall, I avoid these types of restaurants so that I do not come into close contact or confrontation with such polish people.
Though the presence of Polish people has a great impact on the culture of my community, there has been a growing Americanization of my neighborhood. In recent years, I have watched Bedford’s bustling atmosphere bleed into my neighboring community with the emergence of new cafes and restaurants catering to mixed ethnicities and providing a “hipster” ambiance. These types of establishments have brought in increasing numbers of “hipsters” into my neighborhood - individuals that are easily identifiable by their appearance and attitudes. The diversity within my neighborhood comes from these sorts of people because many are racially ambiguous or clearly not of Polish descent; however, many are still visibly caucasian. This picture clearly depicts the prevalence of hipsters within my community on a typical Saturday afternoon. At around noon one Saturday I went out with my mother to do thrifting in Bedford and we had to pass by this congested street on the block of Nassau Avenue’s Dunkin Donuts. The entire cafe was filled and people were crowding outside smoking, talking, and rushing to place orders at the cafe’s quaint “Coffee-to-Go” window. I can see my neighborhood transitioning into a new version of Bedford and it begs the question, will Polish people become displaced as people from Bedford continue encroaching into Greenpoint?
As the culture of Greenpoint changes, it’s interesting to see how the Polish dominant culture affects Bedford. Bedford, Williamsburg is known for its artsy and creative atmosphere, full of thrift stores, unique restaurants, trendy boutiques, and various bookstores. While walking up Bedford I noticed how amid all the pizzerias, cafes, and boutiques there was one polish restaurant named “Kasia’s Restaurant”. I found it interesting because I never noticed the restaurant before, though I frequently hang out in Bedford. The restaurant is closed in this picture and it makes me think that it is rarely open. Though “Kasia’s Restaurant” might be a flourishing business in Greenpoint because the area caters to Polish people, it is a struggling business in Bedford. The culture is completely different in Bedford and the atmosphere is much more alive, whereas in Greenpoint it is relatively calm. Just by making left on Nassau Avenue, you are exposed to a world much different than that of Greenpoint, Brooklyn.