If Brooklyn was loped off from NYC, it would still be the fourth most populous city in the US (I originally wrote “largest”, but in fact it is far smaller than any of them:

Brooklyn vs. Five Largest U.S. Cities (Area in Square Miles)

| Place | Land Area (sq mi) | Comparison to Brooklyn |
|---------------------------|-------------------|-------------------------|
| Brooklyn (NYC borough) | 96.9 | — |
| New York City (overall) | 302.6 | ~3.1 × larger |
| Los Angeles, CA | 469 | ~4.8 × larger |
| Chicago, IL | 227 | ~2.3 × larger |
| Houston, TX | 640 | ~6.6 × larger |
| Phoenix, AZ | 517 | ~5.3 × larger

It is also, by far, the most varied multi-ethnic place in the US (with the possible exception of Queens, NY) and is only given a run for the title by Paris and possibly Toronto.

Anyhow, the borough’s planners brilliantly created commercial streets on a half-mile grid, so you are never more than a quarter of a mile (400m) from what amounts to a miles long shopping mall lined with mostly small shops and restaurants with a sprinkling of banks, post offices, supermarkets and so on.

As an indication of the density of shops, yesterday I was looking for a Tussin DM cough syrup without sugar, alcohol or food coloring for my wife and was able to walk into six pharmacies in a two block stretch.

That’s the constant – the variable is the ever-changing ethnic mixture of each neighborhood.

My neighborhood is as good an example as any. Both my wife and I are amateur cooks. One of the sanity savings during the Covid isolation was the availability of a broad variety of foreign food ingredients available where we live. (Now, of course, there are dozens of stores of other nationalities within a 15-20 minute drive).

Within walking distance (say a mile radius), we have a number of supermarkets (as opposed to smaller food markets, of which there are many) from former Soviet Socialist Republics (two Ukrainian, one Russian, two Uzbek). One of the Ukrainian locations was originally a former of a subsidiary of now-demised A&P and the rest were other commercial properties. Only two of these have parking lots (yes, people shop by walking with their own carts). Also within our area are two Turkish supermarkets (one of which has a bit of parking), two Chinese supermarkets (a third recently closed) as well as an Indian one. There is an Aldi and one “normal” American supermarket “Stop & Shop” (which happens to be owned by a Dutch company).

Which brings to the local “Key Food” (a locally owned, coop connected, complete with parking lot) supermarket. This will shut its doors tomorrow and reopen as another of the Ukrainian chain’s supermarkets.

Jeff