HEAT WAVE Sunday, June 26, 2005 - Christopher DeWolf MONTREAL, Jun 05 : THURSDAY EVENING ON STE-CATHERINE ST. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : BIKE AND SCOOTER, STE-CAT AND MOUNTAIN. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : STE-CATHERINE NEAR DRUMMOND STREET. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : HOT FRIDAY ON STE-CATHERINE NEAR GUY. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : STE-CATHERINE AT CRESCENT STREET. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : TRAFFIC AND CROWDS ON STE-CATHERINE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : WAITING FOR THE BUS ON THE MAIN. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : AFTER THE HEAT, RAIN: PARK AND BERNARD. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : RAINY DUSK ON PARK AVENUE. THIS IS BROOKLYN Saturday, June 18, 2005 - Christopher DeWolf Bensonhurst. Photo by Mark Warren. "I hate Brooklyn," sniffed Jonathan Van Meter in a recent issue of New York magazine. "I'd rather live in the friggin' anodyne Upper East Side than in Brooklyn." He derides Brooklyn as "the new suburbia," a haven for the affluent, thirtysomething Manhattanites that, in other decades, would have fled up the Hudson to calm streets and ivy-coated private schools of Westchester County. Van Meter's biggest beef with New York's most populous borough is that it has sapped the life out of Manhattan -- and by "life" he means the exclusive Sex and the City-esque scene of vapid, wealthy navel-gazers who live for nothing but the latest issue of Vanity Fair and a night at the newest trendy supperclub. Consider his recollections of his first few months in Manhattan: "I found myself standing around at parties next to people I'd only read about or seen on TV. One night at MK, Eric Goode's luxe place in an old bank on Fifth Avenue, Fred Schneider from the B-52's struck up a conversation." This sort of thing, he goes on, "was not happening in Brooklyn." Thank goodness for that. While many of the self-satisfied Manhattan elite have managed to slither their way into Brooklyn neighbourhoods like Park Slope, and the hipsters and "artists" of the Lower East Side long ago wormed their way into Williamsburg, much of the borough remains refreshingly untouched. It's a diverse patchwork whose main attraction is not washed-up ex-Manhattanites with designer-dressed babies and a lingering coke habit from their starfucking days, but old ethnic neighbourhoods renewed by new immigrants -- Latin Americans and Chinese in Sunset Park, or Jamaicans in Flatbush, for example -- and some of New York's hidden gems, like Olmstead's verdant masterpiece, Prospect Park. Nobody captures this Brooklyn better than Mark Warren, a Manhattan student who set out a year ago to photograph every single neighbourhood in Brooklyn. So far, he has only gotten around to touring sixteen, but that number should hopefully increase as the former Montrealer hits the streets again. And maybe he can finally show the likes of Jonathan Van Meter what Brooklyn's really about. Flatbush. Photo by Mark Warren. Head to the archives for last month's posts. THE SWELTERING STREETS, PART TWO Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - Christopher DeWolf MONTREAL, Jun 05 : PARKING LOT ATTENDANT ON PARK AVENUE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : GUILTY PLEASURE, PARK AVENUE, MILE END. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : STREET FAIR IN HOCHELAGA-MAISONNEUVE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : STREET FAIR IN HOCHELAGA-MAISONNEUVE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : STREET FAIR IN HOCHELAGA-MAISONNEUVE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : STREET FAIR IN HOCHELAGA-MAISONNEUVE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : HASSIDIC FESTIVAL IN MILE END. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : HASSIDIC FESTIVAL IN MILE END. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : HASSIDIC FESTIVAL IN MILE END. Head to the archives for last month's posts.   THE SWELTERING STREETS, PART ONE Tuesday, June 14, 2005 - Christopher DeWolf MONTREAL, Jun 05 : CENTURY-OLD AD UNCOVERED ON THE MAIN MONTREAL, Jun 05 : AFTER CLASS AT CÉGEP DU VIEUX-MONTRÉAL. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : EVENING, STE-CATHERINE AND CLARK. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : EVENING AT PARK AND FAIRMOUNT. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : MUGGY AFTERNOON IN THE PARC LAFONTAINE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : READING IN THE PARC LAFONTAINE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : PLAYING WITH A DOG AT LAFONTAINE'S POND. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : FAMILY OUTING AT PARC LAFONTAINE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : VICTORIAN BALCONIES IN CENTRE-SUD. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : SWELTERING EVENING IN THE GAY VILLAGE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : BUSKER ON PRINCE ARTHUR STREET MONTREAL, Jun 05 : AFTERNOON ON MONT-ROYAL AVENUE. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : VIEW EAST ALONG ONTARIO STREET. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : GROCERY STORE ON ONTARIO STREET. MONTREAL, Jun 05 : ROWHOUSES IN WESTMOUNT. Head to the archives for last month's posts.   WELCOME TO VILLE-ÉMARD Monday, June 6, 2005 - Christopher DeWolf MONTREAL, May 05 : MONK BOULEVARD, THE MAIN STRIP. MONTREAL, May 05 : WOMAN CROSSING MONK BOULEVARD. MONTREAL, May 05 : SQUARE ON MONK BOULEVARD. MONTREAL, May 05 : "STARS OF VILLE-ÉMARD" RESTAURANT. MONTREAL, May 05 : CORNER OF MONK AND JOLICOEUR. MONTREAL, May 05 : CROSSING JOLICOEUR STREET. MONTREAL, May 05 : PLEXES ON JOLICOEUR STREET. MONTREAL, May 05 : ITALIAN MEN SITTING ON MONK. MONTREAL, May 05 : THROWBACK TO ANOTHER ERA. MONTREAL, May 05 : VIEW TOWARDS THE 15 AUTOROUTE. MONTREAL, May 05 : DEPANNEUR ON A SIDESTREET. MONTREAL, May 05 : OLD WAGON, OLD DUPLEX. MONTREAL, May 05 : LEAVING VILLE-ÉMARD: MONK METRO. Head to the archives for last month's posts.   CITY CROWDS, CITY FACES Wednesday, June 1, 2005 - Christopher DeWolf MONTREAL, May 05 : SIDEWALK VENDORS ON STE-CATHERINE. MONTREAL, May 05 : CORNER OF STE-CATHERINE AND MANSFIELD. MONTREAL, May 05 : CORNER OF STE-CATHERINE AND MANSFIELD. MONTREAL, May 05 : CORNER OF STE-CATHERINE AND MANSFIELD. MONTREAL, May 05 : CORNER OF STE-CATHERINE AND MANSFIELD. MONTREAL, May 05 : CORNER OF STE-CATHERINE AND MANSFIELD. MONTREAL, May 05 : COUPLE IN JEANNE-MANCE PARK. Head to the archives for last month's posts.