If you’ve read any play by neil simon, or any number of jewish playwrights, the action takes place in Brighton Beach. I could not stop asking whatever question came to mind as we wandered along the boardwalk, to whomever we passed. I even careened over to the benches where little old folks were resting, to query them. The accents are so Russian and so heavy, as they say, they speak as if they just got off the boat, and they have been here for 40 years. Brighton Beach an icon place. There is the boardwalk, which is undistinguishable from the continuation of the Coney Island boardwalk, but when you leave the water and head inland, you then pass the apartments and come to the daily life: the bakeries, the markets, the restaurants, the shops…all offering goods not usually seen in the City, and most certainly at much lower prices. And many of them bearing descriptions only in Russian. The nickname of Brighton Beach is ‘little Odessa’.
The only sign along the boardwalk, that wasn’t in Russian as well as English and Spanish was the one warning about rip tides and the risk of drowning. What sort of oversight was that on the part of NYC Parks?
