At home in Bay Ridge: A diverse community that has it all

Bay Ridge in southwest Brooklyn has long been a haven for blue-collar workers and their families.

Scandinavian, Italian and Irish families have populated the neighborhood in the past, and today, Asian, Greek and Arab Americans also call Bay Ridge home. More recently, New Yorkers priced out of Manhattan or Park Slope digs are also moving in.

The nabe is close to the rest of the city, but far enough away to maintain its unique character.

“It still has a small-town feel,” said Jack LaTorre, a former cop who runs the Bay Ridge Historical Society. “If you walk along Third Avenue or Fifth Avenue, you’re going to still see mom and pop stores.”

But these family-owned shops have been shuttering their doors of late, as store owners have retired or been unable to hunker down through the recession.
However, the Arab community that has settled in Bay Ridge has kept the small-business districts vibrant.

“Not only have they been able to integrate, but they have been an asset to the community,” said Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Bay Ridge-based Arab American Association of New York, located on Fifth Avenue and 78th Street. The influx of new residents has made the neighborhood a mosaic of newer ethnic cultures.

Now, one can get lunch at a Norwegian deli or dine on Lebanese cuisine, then grab an Italian dinner and finish the evening with a drink at an Irish pub or hookah at a Middle Eastern café.

Despite the new demographics of Bay Ridge, what has remained the same over the last few generations is the desire to keep the area clean, safe and close-knit; a place where neighbors are familiar and help each other out.

“That has stayed strong through the years,” said Arlene Rutuelo, president of the Norwegian Day Parade and owner of Nordic Deli, at 6909 Third Ave. “We’re just really fortunate to have a community that really cares.

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Bay Ridge’s borders are 65th Street to the north, 95th Street to the south, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to the east and the Hudson river to the west.

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Yet this aging community with high quality-of-life standards has to contend with the neighborhood youth.

Linda Sarsour of the Arab American Association of New York stressed that more youth programs are needed in the community to keep the youth population occupied.

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Bay Ridge resident Helena DePaola and her husband were teachers with a gardening hobby when they decided to open their shop in 1974.

Decades later, DePaola is serving a second generation of customers at Indoor Outdoor Gardener, a hydroponic plant store on Fifth Avenue that is a favorite among local green thumbs.

DePaola hailed from the South Bronx and came to Bay Ridge in 1972. She was struck by the neighborhood’s greenery.

“I didn’t even know what a blade of grass was when I was in the Bronx,” she said.

What was your first impression of Bay Ridge? Wow, there’s green around. There are trees. There are buildings that are separate, not tenements.

What is the sense of community like here? I have second-generation customers here. My best friend is one of my first customers. I can only speak about the people that come into the store, you can’t hide in Bay Ridge. When you’re a biz owner and you have kids, everybody knows what everyone else is doing … One person knows the next. It’s a very friendly neighborhood with beautiful homes and beautiful gardens.

What have you seen change over the decades? What has changed is the ethnicity … You have now a minimum of 15 cultures here, which I could rattle off … However, what’s been a constant: price of land has not gone down here, not at all. A home gets put up for sale, it lasts a very short time. People are dying to come to Bay Ridge and buy a home. Again, because of the proximity [to the city] and because of the restaurants … There’s a certain amount of small-town goodness. People are there for each other, know each other. But a lot of the little stores are gone. That’s what I miss.