Christian Henry

Contributing Writer

I’ve lived in Brooklyn for the majority of my life, so if anyone knows it best, it would be me. Growing up in Brooklyn had its challenges, like dealing with crimes and other inconveniences.

10202 Avenue J. was the address of the house I grew up in. The house wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, just a small three-story brick home. The neighborhood I lived in was beautiful in my eyes, with Norway maple trees going down the street. Five on my side of the street and five on the other side. There wasn’t much grass, only small dirt patches near the tree, with little freckles of grass coming out.

The only protection we had for our house was a small, run-down silver and gold gate anyone could walk into and a lock on our door. The first thing you would notice when walking into my home was the smell of sweet pea flowers. We always made sure our home smelled good because the outside air smelled like people threw their baby diapers out in the middle of the street.

I have three brothers, Dennis the oldest. AJ is the middle child. Tyler is the youngest before me. We all shared a small box-shaped room with white walls and a black and brown striped wood floor. In our room, we had two crooked bunk beds that my brothers and I had to sleep on every night. The beds were crooked because my brothers and I would play on them but one day it broke and the bottom support snapped like a wooden stick.

Living in a small house in Brooklyn is nothing out of the ordinary. I remember my mom always telling us, “We’re blessed to have this.” She would always remind us to be grateful for what we have because there is always going to be someone who wants what you have. Well, I don’t think they wanted common house mice that would sneak up on us once in a while when we least expected it.

According to Health People 2030, “low-income neighborhoods are more likely to be affected by crime and property crime than high-income neighborhoods.” Poor neighborhoods tend to have higher crime rates, which isn’t anything new. It made it hard for people to get jobs strictly because there were too many people in one area. Since people can’t find a way to pay for food, bills and other expenses, this leads to robbery and other crimes. My family and I never had to worry about stealing or doing anything bad to make money or get food on the table at night.

During the holiday season, we made sure to take full precautions to stay safe. If my brothers or I ever had to go to the store, we would never leave the house alone. You would never know if someone was lurking around one of the dark corners of Canarsie One Stop Market waiting to take your money.

We stayed together because, around Thanksgiving and Christmas, people became more hungry and strived to provide for their families. It’s almost a 40/60 split between love and crime during the holiday season. On Christmas day in Brooklyn, you’ll see most people smiling while opening gifts of their new Xbox One S or new iPhone, but then you’ll go outside, walk down a block or two, and most likely witness somebody getting robbed (if you’re not getting robbed by a guy in a black ski mask and a Glock 22 in his hand yourself).

Living in a place like this takes a toll on your personality and who you are as a person. I remember my brother telling me, “Don’t be another statistic.” This was when I was 10. He was referring to the crime and problems going on in our community. Since then, I have made sure to never steal, even when the people around me try to encourage me to steal snacks whenever we go to the corner store. I refused because my brother’s voice would play over and over again in my head.

Being in Brooklyn was a very simple and complex life at the same time. The reason I say this is because everything was very accessible, if you wanted to go to the corner store, you could go get some food for cheap and then go back home. Getting around town was also very easy because you could just take the train or a bus since it was everywhere. My brothers and I would take the bus in the morning for school. It would stop a few times before dropping us off at our school at P.S. 181 Brooklyn.

Something important when living in New York as a whole is to mind your business, no matter the situation. Minding your business is really important because if you get yourself involved in a situation where you have no place to be, it can get you either robbed, hurt, killed or arrested.

It sounds cruel, but if you see someone being mugged, your best bet is to act like you didn’t see anything. I was too young to remember this story, but my brother Dennis told me about how he was walking to the Canarsie One Stop Mart by himself near our house, and out of nowhere, a vehicle with a silver exterior and dark tinted windows started opening fire on a man in front of him. It is extremely scary now that I’m older. If my brother were to walk any closer to that guy, he could be dead.