Brownsville – The Murder Capital of New York City

As the morning of 4 December dawned, the weather had thawed considerably and I made the decision – to visit New York City’s infamous murder capital, a neighbourhood named Brownsville in the heart of Brooklyn.

The decision was not made lightly, but at the time, crime had decreased significantly in many parts of NYC, including Brooklyn. The New York Times even wrote an article on how East New York, the only other neighbourhood that rivals Brownsville’s crime reputation (East New York has the distinction of being known as ‘The Killing Fields’), had no murders up until April 2018, when the article was written.

Even so, shooting incidents do occur sporadically and it is easy to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time and be caught in the crossfire. Therefore, I decided to stick to the outskirts, and away from the main housing projects which dominate the landscape in Brownsville, which are known to be hot-spots for possible crime.

As mentioned in previous posts, Brownsville has the highest density of pubic housing projects within its one square-mile boundaries (East Harlem is the runner-up) in the entire United States. Although there are tons of housing projects around New York City, the ones here are known to be the most notorious in all the boroughs, along with the Pink Houses in East New York.

For the past few years, I started gaining an interest in sociology after doing research on the hikikomori phenomenon in Japan, and how social factors can shape individual lives on a massive scale. Brownsville is pretty unique as it has managed to stave off the blight of gentrification (read: hipster-fied) that has taken hold in nearby Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant and its streets have remained virtually unchanged for many decades.

I was piqued by how the denizens of Brownsville felt in the face of gentrification almost knocking on its doors and get a feel of what daily life was like there (another article I read stated that a substantial proportion of Brownsville residents do not travel outside its boundaries).

Additionally, the neighbourhood does have its interesting history tidbits – Brownsville was once home to Murder Inc., which was behind hundreds of hits and assassinations in the 1930s and 40s and run by the Italian mobs.

Known as the Midnight Rose Candy Store, it was run by a petite old lady in her sixties known as Rosie Gold. However, there was nothing innocuous in this little shop – there was a row of telephones that lined one side of the store. Whenever a phone rang, a member of the death squad would be given details of the hit. In total, it was estimated that 400 – 1,000 murders were carried out by Murder Inc., making them the single-most deadly organisation behind the most number of murders in the entire US (Atlas Obscura).

Despite Brownsville being known as a food desert by most, I found that there were two neighbourhood cafes that were recently opened by Brownsville natives. I decided to stick to the one that was on the outskirts of the neighbourhood on the border of Crown Heights and Brownsville to get a feel of the area first.

Getting on the 3 train at Atlantic Ave Barclays Center station, the train lumbered through Crown Heights and the train became increasingly empty. I felt a sense of trepidation as the train left the last stop of Crown Heights, at Utica Avenue Station and made its way into the boundaries of Brownsville.

Halfway there, the 3 train emerged into the crisp, mid-morning air as the Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road station was an above-ground subway station (something that I did not realise at the time). As the train rumbled to a stop on the platform, I alighted and took a moment to soak in my surroundings. The subway did not look considerably more run-down than other areas I had visited in Queens, and my friend who had accidentally taken the subway to East New York reported that it was much more sketchier.

After climbing down a flight of stairs, there was a big, burly MTA officer stationed at the ticket gantry – mostly likely to clamp down on fare evasion. The station was not very crowded, although there was still a buzz of people coming and going. I had checked the direction to the cafe beforehand, so I made my way towards the correct exit and soon spotted my destination – Blendzville Cafe.

I had initially seen photos of the cafe on Yelp and thought it looked warm and welcoming. However, the stark reality when I entered was a steep contrast, with white walls and a dimly lit interior. I paused for a moment at the threshold to make sure I was at the right place before entering and greeting the person manning the counter. He flashed a warm smile and asked what I would like to have.

As the name of the cafe alludes to, they had a variety of shakes and burgers. The shakes were creatively named with alliterations of the surrounding areas, such as Sutter Sunshine, Livonia Liver Tonic Juice and Parkway Potion.

I ordered a salmon burger with sweet potato fries, along with the Parkway Potion (it consists of strawberry, banana, passion fruit and mango). There were only a few other patrons in the small store and I saw a few curious looks from the corner of my eye.

I sat on a table near the exit while waiting for my order and looked around the little eatery. There was a large sign of the Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road station lining the wall and a television that was switched off at the time.

The Parkway Potion smoothie arrived first and I took a quick sip. It was lusciously frothy and full of the strawberry flavour with hints of banana and mango.

The salmon burger soon arrived and I was pleasantly surprised by its size. I took a massive bite of the burger and the taste was pretty decent, with the decadent taste of salmon and no hint of fishiness at all.

While I was tucking into my food, the lady who had been eyeing me curiously could no longer contain her curiosity and struck up a conversation. She said she was from Jamaica (the country) and stayed in the area ever since she arrived. One of the first questions I recall her asking if I was staying around the neighbourhood or planning to move there. I hastily reassured her that I was just visiting and avoided the question of whether I would actually want to move there. We talked a little about gentrification and how there were small signs of it happening, even in Brownsville (to my knowledge, I only read about how houses on the outskirts of Brownsville were starting to increase in price). I also did not want her to think that I might be a symptom of the gentrification problem and that the end times (of low rent) are coming.

After I finished, I thanked the owner, Pascal, and bid goodbye to him and the lady. I decided it seemed safe enough to explore the immediate surroundings and walked around for a bit.

The disparity between Brownsville and Lower Manhattan which was barely 40 minutes away was surreal – how can two such vastly different places exist within such a short distance from each other? Manhattan continues to be one of the major hubs of the world and attracts the “yuppiest” of yuppies, while Brownsville has not known peaceful times for almost a century, as it is consistently plagued by gangs and drug violence. It almost feels somewhat like a death sentence to be born into this neighbourhood and very few success stories ever occur (Mike Tyson being one of the most famous examples).

I did not linger around for too long as it was approaching dusk and made my way back to the station and took a final quick video of the area.

I would return to Brownsville at a later date, in my final week of New York, after going to the nearby Weeksville Heritage House, to see the street art murals that very few outsiders have ever seen.