Circulation: Notes From Neighborhood Tour
From Seminar 2: The Peopling of New York City
David Liu's Notes
-Caracom--Carribean community in world market--14 countries participating
- A lot of Green Grocers
- A lot of different yams--red/white
- A lot of peppers "our food has to be spicy"
- Guyana Gold - Guyanese Gold
-Fish is big staple of Community
- African Movies Are big
- A lot of Rotti Shops
- Immigrants attract more immigrants (Ex: Ecuador Barber Shop off Church Av.)
- Panama has huge Chinese population -- mentioned when passing the Chinese mexican food
- Guyanese restaurants have chinese food on their menues
-Barrel Goods - ship everything from here- in barrels- clothing, food
-Laparkzan Shipping
-Can buy airline ticket for Jamaica and Haiti there
-Down-State Medical Center located nearby
-A lot of people from Caribbean work in medical services
- Dollar Van - take you around the neighborhood
- A lot of nail salons
The Church
- 96 years old
- Assemblyman Nick Perry - only Caribbean person in NY State Assembly
Western Union (associated with Grace Foods)
-Grace Kennedy
-Grace Foods- biggest food dealer
- *Critical* Went into money transfer--billions of $$ went out of US to Caribbean
- Grace Foods is Jamaica based--help bring feeling of islands here
- people from HAiti, Guyana, Jamaica work here- most people feel more comfortable speaking their own dialect
- LArge influx of Africans to Area as well so use Western Union to service there as well
- ORder Groceries back to family and friends in Jamaica $7 at Superplus Food Store
- Average is once a month to send back remittances
- Families become dependent on family members sending remittances back to them
- Billion $ industry growing exponentially
- Called themselves "Caribbean outpost"
- Can also find Grace Foods in US-- (e.g. tropical rhythms)
- More Caribbean people in Brooklyn than anywhere else in the world
- Fronts of hoods have flags of home island/country
-Biggest money transfer in the world
===Barrel Goods - Barrels very big and round
-send barrels usually by christmas
-send in early october
-imported goods are very expensive in the Caribbean
-made of dense cardboard
- send around Christmas time-- many countries don't have duty charged
- Western union just sends money, no barrels
post office in immigrant communities is a lifeline
More To Come...