Brooklyn: Full of Wonders

Being married to someone who studies neighborhoods, living in a specimen of the gentrification debate, and inhabiting one of the most diverse areas in the country sometimes make you over-question your surroundings. My sister and I, who give ribaldry a new meaning, hit up Midwood, Brooklyn today. Certainly, I thought, Midwood would look like the other parts of Brooklyn I had seen: three- to five- floor apartment buildings, a nice diverse population (maybe some segments would be denser than others in some areas), small, sparse parks.

But imagine our surprise cruising down Ocean Parkway, and seeing enormous Georgian mansions interspersed with fancy synagogues. Mansions! I get that we're near the beach, and maybe back when New York beaches were unspoiled sparkling wilderness, rich folks had beach houses there. But now? I mean, you're an ad executive and you maintain a condo in the UES, a chateau in Provence, and a beach house a mile away from lovely...Coney Island??

I had so many questions.

1) If you can afford to live in a mansion, why Midwood? What is fun here?

2) Where do you work where you can afford this mansion, if you're not a local doctor or suffering a 2 hour commute into job-dense Manhattan?

3) Who are you?

Perhaps I will call chacha to figure this out, and see what kind of subjective, loaded answer they give me.