Dan's Papers - June 15, 2007 - The Rise of Brooklyn

You know the face of Brooklyn is changing when it gets its own Jitney line. Even though there are still plenty of working-class neighborhoods, the gentrification process has hit Brooklyn hard. This means a few things: it means some native Brooklynites can't afford their rent anymore, it means other native Brooklynites hit the jackpot with their investments, and it means a lot of Brooklynites are no longer native. As prices of real estate in Manhattan have skyrocketed, eliminating even the upper middle class from the pool of potential Manhattan buyers, Brooklyn has been the go-to borough. With easy access to downtown Manhattan and a unique, cool culture all its own, Brooklyn has become the place for wealthy young families to buy their homes and for working young singles to rent.

But all these jet-setting people have faced a perpetual problem on Fridays in the summer. It may feel like it's time to go to the beach, but at 5 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, Brooklyn has just not been furnished to ease the ride to the East End. Brooklyn dwellers have historically stuck to their borough, hitting Coney Island for the bumper cars and Prospect Park for the summer concert series. Brooklyn is a great place to be on summer weekends. Unless, of course, you have a house in the Hamptons. This summer brings the debut of Jitney service straight from the brownstone stoops of Brooklyn to the windswept beaches of the Hamptons.

Most Brooklyn dwellers work either in Brooklyn or in lower Manhattan, and hightailing it to the Hamptons straight from work has never before been offered as a viable option. Do they bring their luggage with them to work in the morning? There's certainly no way they're going back to Brooklyn and then schlepping uptown to catch a ride out. But this year, life has been made much simpler for these Brooklynites. The Jitney is leaving from four spots in Brooklyn and carrying busloads out to the beach every Friday afternoon through Labor Day. If the service is well received, they'll keep the line going after that.

The Hampton Jitney has been carrying passengers from Manhattan to the Hamptons and back since 1974, and this new line reflects the changes in the city since then. It's not only Upper East Siders doing the East End shuffle anymore. The Brooklyn Jitney is also much more convenient for those who work in the Financial District. Even if they live uptown, leaving from work would bring them out here much faster. No need to backtrack when they can get to Brooklyn in minutes. The Brooklyn Heights Jitney stop is at the crossroads of eight different subway lines, just a stop or two from lower Manhattan. The Jitney will leave 4th Avenue and 9th Street in Park Slope at 5:30 p.m. on Friday afternoons, making one more stop in Park Slope and one in Boerum Hill before picking up the masses in Brooklyn Heights. Then it will zip out East.

The Jitney just started Brooklyn service on May 18, and there were only ten passengers. PR spokesperson Jennifer Friebely attributes this lukewarm welcome to the poor weekend forecast, when the thermometer lingered around 50 degrees throughout the weekend. The following weekends have improved, though the service still only consists of one bus so far. A Jitney representative said that the schedule would not be expanded until demand warranted it. As of right now, the bus leaves at 5:30 p.m. from Park Slope and brings passengers to either the Hamptons or the North Fork. If there is only one bus, passengers will need to transfer at Manorville to meet up with buses hailing from Manhattan. If there are sufficient reservations to warrant more than one bus, then passengers will be divided between the Hamptons and the North Fork and will not have to transfer. Return service is offered on Sundays, departing Montauk at 5 p.m. and Greenport at 5:40 p.m. Passengers will be deposited at two locations in Brooklyn Heights and three in Park Slope.

The familiar big green bus that's been carting commuters for over thirty years is now going to become a regular installment on the calmer Brooklyn streets. It comes to meet an increasing population of people in Brooklyn with homes in the Hamptons. People will gather together in their Lilly Pulitzer and their Polo and they'll load up in front of the brownstone stoops where Spike Lee once made his films. For the Hampton Jitney, this is a wise business move, meeting a market that is certainly present. For the borough of churches, it's another sign of a changing culture.