Things I've Learned (So Far) Living In Brooklyn
Steve Canter
Much of my elementary days were spent growing up and running the streets of “The ‘Nati” (Cincinnati for you non natives) and outside of Cleveland. I also spent a few years of college at the University of Cincinnati (long live Coach Huggins) and I had been going to an urban church plant (blueprintchurch.org) in Atlanta for the past three years. Heck, I've even been part of the REBUILD Network (rebuildnetwork.org) leadership team for the past few years. Not that my urban resume gives me a ton of street cred, but I assumed it would serve me well in leading my family in our new neighborhood of Brooklyn (No Sleep Till …Sorry, I had a junior high Beastie Boys moment). But you know what? You don’t know what you don’t know.
As a youth pastor I was an expert on anything and everything teenagers. I would not say that I knew it all, but I was probably thinking it. But oh, now as a father of three daughters - two of them teenage GIRLS - hush your mouth former youth pastor Steve. Moving to the city has been kind of like that. I know a lot, but I really didn’t know what I didn’t know.
So with that said, here is Things I’ve Learned (So Far) Living in Brooklyn. Some are NYC specific and others are more general about adjusting to city life.
1. People who lived in NYC during the 1970’s-1980’s need to be respected, not apologized to. Those that lived and survived the city back in the day deserve a badge or something. It was the real deal back then. But as new people move into the city, we do not need to feel like the cause or bare the shame for the changing dynamics of neighborhood. Us newer people, though, should always respect people’s stories and the story of the community, but not feel the need to apologize for moving into their neighborhood. Quick note. Gentrification is a real issue that I will write about frequently. Just not in this post.
2. It’s better to be broke living in the neighborhood you like than nearly broke in a neighborhood you hate. Housing in the city is expensive. Period! Side note…it’s a little odd to spell out “period” and follow it with an exclamation point. You are going to be either broke or nearly broke, so pick a neighborhood, or as we urbanites say, “a hood” and adjust your expectations. Are the size, cleanliness, modern marvels such as dishwashers, and all the other amenities available in that other neighborhood worth the extra train time and expenses to go and hangout in the place you really want?
3. Everything you could ever imagine is in the city, but good luck getting it. 75% of NYCers live within a 5-minute walk of a grocery store. The problem is that almost every bodega has the product inventory of a medium size food mart at a gas station. Except for organic milk. Every flavor and size imaginable is available. It's crazy. Also, public transportation is hard and time consuming. Much more so than I had imagined. I find myself ordering crazy things on Amazon now. Things like hollow wall anchors, socks, sharpies, t-shirts, etc. If you ever get a birthday present from me (you probably wont…see #2) it will come from Amazon.
4. You can be a New Yorker, but not be from New York. Crazy. Right? It seems like ten years in the city is the minimum amount of time when it is permissible to call yourself a New Yorker. By then the wannabes are weeded out. But, you are never from New York unless, of course, you really are from New York. You can be a 30-year-old man living in New York for 25 years. You are a New Yorker, but you will never be from New York. I’ll always be from Cincinnati. No matter what. The best I can hope to be is a New Yorker from The ‘Nati.
5. Having a dog requires dedication to your furry pal. If you ever want to show me you love me, get up at 6:00 am and take me for a walk in 10 inches of blowing snow when it is 15 degrees outside. Oh yeah, don’t forget to pull out a little plastic bag and pick my poop off the slushy snow covered sidewalk. The neighbors hate it when you leave that mess.
6. You can’t judge a man by the color of his dress. Let’s just say that cities are densely populated with lots of diverse people. If you are going to be intentionally relational with people, you will meet that guy or girl who has a completely different lifestyle than you. Completely. But you know what? Most of them are pretty cool people.
7. There is no place we would rather be. My family loves NYC and all the crazy things that make the city what it is. We love our 1,050 square foot apartment with one bathroom (Yes, you remember correctly, I have three daughters). We love our diverse neighborhood. We love the noises in the streets late at night. We love the honesty of Northeastern city people. We love walking to church, school, and friends’ places. We love the streets smelling like pee. Well, maybe that was too far.
Most of all, though, we love the opportunities to live out and tell the gospel to a community we are falling in love with. Luke 10:2 teaches us the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. I always assumed that was true, it is in the Bible and all. But now I see it everyday when I walk my daughter to school. I feel it when I’m sitting by people on the train. We do not have a harvest problem in NYC (people are open and I have gospel conversations daily), but we do have a problem with the labor force! We need more workers, laborers, for the kingdom. The point is this; I think more people would love doing ministry in the city if they could only know what they don’t know.