Aunt Bea Comes To Visit - Tuesday

September 30, 2008

On Tuesday, we decided to visit the old neighborhood that was a large part of the Schaffer family history: Manhattan Beach. We made a date with my Aunt Sissy, who lives in adjacent Brighton Beach and drove down to have lunch in a little Russian cafe in Sheepshead Bay - The Coffee Spot Cafe. Stacey picked that place because they serve the most delicious blintzes. We knew Sissy like that and Bea approved as well.

Three beautiful women: Stacey, Sissy and Bea.

Lunch at the Coffee Spot Cafe.

Yum! Blintzes!

After lunch, we took a car tour of Manhattan Beach, stopping first at West End Avenue. My famiy lived on that street and so did the Schaffers, just a block away. Bea marvelled at the changes that had occurred since she and her family moved to Baltimore in 1960. As everywhere else in Booklyn, four and six story, and often much higher apartment houses have appeared where once little houses lined a street. These new buildings all have the requsite marketing appellation Luxury Condos applied to them. Apparently, there are no other kind of condos except luxurious ones. But what they do to a neighborhood is quite another unluxurious story and it seems that there is no control, foresight or planning that goes into the widespread construction of these domiciles. The politicians, well shmeared, look the other way as once peaceful, quiet and low-rise neighborhoods are transformed, with total disregard for their original qualities, into out-of-context, congested bastions of condo dwellers. The only ones who make out in this kind of deal are the well-connected developers who are given total freedom to build whatever and wherever they please.

The old Weinstein house at 220 West End Avenue - overgrown and untouched since it was sold in 2003.

During our tour we stopped at the home of Bea's old friend (and our as well), Anne Yellin. Anne didn't recognize Bea after an absence of many decades but she realized who she was she embraced her with all her might. We chatted for a while and then drove to Brighton to visit Sissy's old house on Brighton 3rd Path. Brighton has been particularly hard hit by the condo construction blitz and, as a result, the once-quaint and eccentric beach feel of that neighborhood with its small bungalows and warren of "courts, paths and walks" is rapidly disappearing. At the same time, the homes that still stand are deteriorating for lack of care and maintenance as developers pressure residents to sell. "For Sale" signs are everywhere and the neighborhood looks rundown and unkempt.

An old and dear friend, Anne Yellin, and Bea recollect the good old days.

Sissy remembers family life at her old house in Brighton Beach.

We returned home in time to get Bea to our doctor in Park Slope. She had to have some stitches removed from a minor surgery she had undergone in Florida. Another interesting and lovely day in Brooklyn, New York.

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