Being someone who is born and raised in this wonderful borough, I take pride in being from Brooklyn, in being a "Brooklynite". Until joining the Eagle, I have always lived and worked in Southern Brooklyn, in Sheepshead Bay. So now that I am in Downtown Brooklyn, I am "rediscovering" my hometown.

Downtown Brooklyn is a wonderful part of this borough. To me, it is the entire borough of Manhattan in just a few short blocks: Where there is a Wall Street atmosphere on one block, there is Soho a block away. Take where I work, for instance. When I get off the train and come up the stairs onto the corner of Montague and Court Street, I feel as if I am in the middle of Wall Street, because all around me are businesspeople rushing in and out of tall gotham-esque buildings that tower overhead. Then, as I walk only one block, I am surrounded by cafes and bookstores and clothing shops and galleries in brownstones with people sitting on the stoops sipping cappuccino, where did Wall Street go and how did I get into Soho? Then, as I walk two more blocks past the Eagle offices, I come to the end of Montague Street, where I find the romantic promenade, which provides a complimentary postcard view of Manhattan.

I think that "exploring" my own hometown has made me realize just how big Brooklyn is. And while Downtown Brooklyn may seem like a new experience to me but not to those who live here, I wonder if the same can be said for Sheepshead Bay? So I invite you to do what I just did, "explore" your hometown, but on a broader sense.

I plan on trekking to different parts of the borough to see what they are like, why don’t you? Brooklyn has people living in it from over 90 different ethnic backgrounds speaking dozens of languages – go find them.

My goal for this exploration is to answer some questions like: What do the brownstones in Park Slope look like covered in snow? How good are the Italian restaurants that line 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge? What is a Sabbath service like in a synagogue in Crown Heights? How pretty are the songs in a church in Bedford Stuyvesant on a Sunday? This borough is so big, I better get started.

By the way, if you’re planning a vacation, I ask you this: When you have Brooklyn, who needs the rest of the world?