DUMBO

I consider myself the unofficial ambassador of Brooklyn. I moved to here 11 years ago and found a new home.

I live and work in Brooklyn. My work home is in DUMBO where my studio is overlooking the East River with stunning views on Manhattan.

DUMBO stands for “Down Under The Manhattan Bridge Overpass” and is the sliver between the Manhttan and Brooklyn Bridge. I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else. Why? Well, I might be giving my secret away here, but, DUMBO let’s you fake small-town living in a big city. DUMBO’s streets are fairly quiet, and I like that. Yet, we look over to Manhattan and think “Oh, look, there’s NYC!”

The Walentas had a lot to do with what DUMBO is today, and I am eternally grateful to them for so masterfully curating this little neighborhood.

And then there is the DUMBO Business Improvement District Bureau that is run by some wonderful folks and they just launched a fantastic DUMBO resource site.

There’s lots to see in DUMBO and dumbo.is makes it easy to plan your visit in advance. See what’s happening in DUMBO on the Decoder page. Read up on some businesses that are residing in DUMBO.

And if you’d like to see some of my DUMBO suggestions, then check out my itinerary.

And most of all, bookmark the homepage: www.dumbo.is

5 Comments leave a comment below

  1. i just moved to ny a few months ago and instantly fell in love with DUMBO while out exploring bk neighborhoods. fantastic.

    xq
    Oct 12th, 2011 / 2:19 pm

  2. I moved to an apartment on the edge of DUMBO and Vinegar Hill in the spring of 2010 and I have loved every day here! I just spent 4 months traveling Eastern Europe and had an amazing time, but coming back to see a completed park, Jane’s Carousel, new shops and events was such an amazing feeling of homecoming.

    Add the engrained community of artists and digital mavens and you have a neighborhood that is pretty hard to beat!

    Andrew Cafourek
    Oct 12th, 2011 / 2:20 pm

  3. I love this post – I too live and work in Brooklyn. Home is 3 blocks from the east river park and work is right next door to you guys in Dumbo. It’s a special place to be and I am looking forward to new bars and restaurants popping up in the Dumbo neighbourhood (hopefully!) as this is the one thing I’m sure others will agree is ever so slightly lacking!

    nc
    Oct 12th, 2011 / 5:59 pm

  5. I was lucky enough to move to DUMBO in 1990. I moved out right after I started seeing little kids running around wearing Prada and the tour buses rolled in. I agree that it’s a magical place but I have to say, the real magic of DUMBO comes from (and should be attributed to) the pioneers who created it – the artists and families that I loved who had the vision to move there before me in the 60’s-80’s and were driven out by the Walentas family’s purely financial agenda. Ask anyone who was there early on, and watched the Walentas swoop in and “curate” this special neighborhood to reflect their own egos and gain. They should never be canonized for driving out the people who found it first. Everyone else to date is just a contributor.
    In my opinion, it is now a Disney interpretation of a “hipster” neighborhood. Right down to the carousel ride. I admire and embrace change as long as the change is recognized as being something different, not necessarily better – it’s all a matter of perspective.

    dani
    Oct 13th, 2011 / 2:17 pm