Everything is Illuminated Department: Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, is the height of Christmas luminosity. On the night of marauding Santas (a new holiday tradition called “SantaCon,” where bands of youths and demented oldsters dress as Santa and elves to spread holiday cheer), I drove through this remarkable part of the outer borough where competitive light displays is a way of life and light-dressing experts are hired for their pyrotechnical wizardly — some as amazing as fireworks.
Nothing big ever happens in the Dyker Heights/Bensonhurst part of Brooklyn, but then again, that’s how the mostly laid-back residents here like it. Walk east across noisy New Utrecht Avenue, however, and you’ve stumbled upon the full-on Eastern European area of Bensonhurst. You’re in for the cold shoulder treatment here because if you can’t speak at least three non-English languages fluently, they can tell you’re just a “new” Brooklynite. Even if you don’t look like a hipster. But these areas have plenty to offer, especially for the gourmet shopper and adventuresome eater. – NFT (Not For Tourists),
See better photos here.
