I've arrived early and as I'm scanning the famous locals lined up along the footpath, I'm wondering who I'll be touring Brooklyn with today.
Will it be Jimmy Fallon? Steve Buscemi? Jay-Z?
Turns out it's Mel Brooks.
That's the name of my bike, by the way. You didn't think I meant the real Mel Brooks, did you? It would be just plain weird, rude and possibly illegal to jump on the back of an 89-year-old comedy icon and tell him to take me on a 28-kilometre, five-hour tour of New York's biggest borough. There are nine of us on board the Get Up and Ride Classic Brooklyn tour today – joining me will be three women from Houston, a Canadian father and son, a honeymooning couple from Glasgow, and a New Yorker named Richard.
"I've lived in Manhattan for 46 years," Richard tells the group when we're asked to introduce ourselves. "But I'm really a stranger to Brooklyn. I haven't been over here in 30 years."
He's in for a shock. Over the last 10 or 15 years Brooklyn has become the focus of the most rapid gentrification in New York. At the same time, traditional neighbourhoods dominated by different ethnic groups have maintained their character while rubbing shoulders with the new Brooklyn.
Our guide is Nick, an enthusiastic 22-year-old film-maker who works in urban planning.
"I am not your fearless leader," he informs us before we get going. "I am your shepherd. If I ride into an intersection, don't just blindly follow me. Look first."
It's a very New York kind of warning. Each of us is fitted out with an earpiece that picks up Nick's walkie-talkie – or more accurately, bikie-talkie – so we can hear his commentary as we ride. The first thing he tries to get our heads around is how big Brooklyn is. It has 2.6 million people, it's bigger than Washington DC, and if it was a city instead of a borough, it would be the fourth largest city in the entire United States.
People often talk about Brooklyn as if it's one easy-to-describe place, but in fact it's a sprawling series of neighbourhoods, each with its own character. We ride north through Greenpoint, which should be instantly recognisable to anyone who watches Lena Dunham's critically acclaimed TV show Girls. In fact Café Grumpy, where her character works for a while, is right there on Diamond Street. But along with all the cool bars, restaurants, cafes, stores and boutiques that have flowered here in the last decade, Greenpoint remains a stronghold for the largest Polish population in the US outside of Chicago, and we ride past many traditional bakeries, butchers, delis and grocers in the neighbourhood.
Our group rolls out onto a pier at Transmitter Park on the East River to gaze across at the Manhattan skyline, then heads south through McCarren Park into Williamsburg, which was still a post-industrial urban wasteland as recently as the early 1990s. The streets were lined with rubbish-strewn vacant lots back then, and heroin needles and crack vials dotted the sidewalks. The waterfront, which used to be home to the thriving beer and sugar industries, had become a ghost town; the only workers plying their trade along there were the prostitutes.
But as the '90s progressed, aspiring artists, musicians, writers, designers and film-makers who were priced out of SoHo, then the East Village, then the Lower East Side, started moving in, attracted by the cheap rents and the fact that Williamsburg was only one stop across the East River from Manhattan on the L train.
The area slowly became a hipster haven, then in 2005 mayor Michael Bloomberg rezoned Brooklyn's waterfront, allowing the construction of luxury condominiums along with parks and public spaces. Today many of those starving artists can no longer afford to live in an area where the average monthly rent on a studio apartment is around $US1400 ($1950) a month.
We stop outside the Wythe, a 72-room boutique hotel in north Williamsburg that used to be a textiles factory and is now one of the most desirable places to stay in New York. Across the road is Brooklyn Bowl, a tenpin bowling alley, bar and music venue where Questlove from The Roots regularly DJs, while half a block away is Brooklyn Brewery, which was established in 1996 and put the borough back on the beer map after the industry collapsed after Prohibition.
Our group has worked up an appetite so we stop for a slice at Best Pizza. I've been in enough arguments about the best pizza joints in New York to know that it can only end in tears, but this hole-in-the-wall in Williamsburg regularly ends up in top 10 lists. And after downing one of their white slices – ricotta and mozzarella with caramelised onions and sesame seeds – I'm not arguing with that rating.
Back in the saddle we head underneath the Williamsburg Bridge into South Williamsburg. Once again, there is gentrification here, which started in the late '90s and early 2000s with celebrated restaurants such as Diner and Marlow & Sons. But it remains the home to a large Hasidic Jewish community and we ride through streets full of men in long black coats, sporting traditional payot (long sidelocks of hair) and the cheesecake-sized fur hats known as shtreimels.
We eventually link up with the Brooklyn Greenway, a bike and jogging path separated from traffic that links Williamsburg in the north to Red Hook in the south. We cruise along until we reach Brooklyn Navy Yard, which had lain idle since the late '70s, when the last ship was built here. Redevelopment of the site began in the mid-'90s and today it's a thriving business district that includes Steiner Studios, the largest US film and TV production studio outside of California.
"Let's get off our bikes here," says Nick. "We're going to see a farm."
It's difficult to see what he's talking about, as we're surrounded by warehouse-like buildings. Sure enough, after climbing into an elevator and rising 11 floors, we emerge into Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm, six hectares of vegetables and herbs, all organically grown and served at the tables of dozens of New York restaurants.
Downstairs and back in the saddle, we ride through Downtown Brooklyn, then across Cadman Plaza to Brooklyn Heights, the quintessential old Brooklyn neighbourhood of tree-lined streets, brownstone buildings and front stoops.
"See that yellow building on the right?" Nick says as we pass a grand looking house in Willow Street. "Truman Capote used to live there. Now it's owned by the guy who created Grand Theft Auto, who bought it for $12.5 million."
Perhaps that tells the story of Brooklyn – a house a writer could once afford is now owned by the man behind the biggest video game of recent times.
Our next stop is Brooklyn Promenade, which has one of the best views of downtown Manhattan in the entire city. It was here that Brooklynites assembled almost 14 years ago to watch in disbelief and horror as the World Trade Centre towers collapsed. Then we continue to Brooklyn Roasting Company, a fair trade and organic coffee house. With its prime location in the St Ann's Warehouse building in Dumbo, it easily disproves the rule that the better the view, the worse the coffee.
We'd meandered our way from Greenpoint to Dumbo in four-and-a-half hours, but zip along the Brooklyn Greenway all the way back to Williamsburg in just 30 minutes.
"I can't believe how much Brooklyn has changed," says Richard, as we park Mel Brooks and Jimmy Fallon back at Get Up and Ride headquarters. "That's the thing about New York though. It's constantly changing. I'm not waiting 30 years before I come back again."
TRIP NOTES
MORE INFORMATION
GETTING THERE
Qantas operates daily services from Sydney (with daily connections from every capital city) to New York on its B747 aircraft, which have been refitted with A380 interiors. Prices from $2019 return.
STAYING THERE
Nu Hotel is right in the heart of downtown Brooklyn, has complimentary breakfasts and offers bike loans for guests. From $US139 low season. See www.nuhotelbrooklyn.com
Aloft New York Brooklyn is also in downtown and has loft-inspired rooms and a rooftop bar. From $US152 low season. See www.aloftnewyorkbrooklyn.com
CYCLING THERE
Get Up and Ride's Classic Bike Tour Of Brooklyn takes five hours and costs $US99. The company also runs a Manhattan tour and offers bike rentals for $US35 a day. 330 South 3rd Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. See www.getupandride.com.
The writer travelled as a guest of Discover America.
