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A short walk along the boardwalk from Coney Island lies Brighton Beach, known locally as ‘Little Odessa’ due to the high level of immigration from Odessa in Ukraine.
I’ve always been drawn to Coney Island, a faded seaside resort in southern Brooklyn facing the breezy Atlantic Ocean.
Once a thriving retreat for New Yorkers, the area has been slowly decaying for decades, and worrying new big business plans look set to remove any remaining charm from the seafront. Here’s some photos from my visit last year.
![July 4th: Happy Independence Day 2011, USA [New York photos]](http://www.urban75.org/blog/images/july-4th-usa-07.jpg)
Seeing as today is Independence Day in the US, I thought I’d get in the mood by posting up a small selection of photos from my New York visits over the years.
The Welsh connection
There’s a strong (and little known) Welsh connection here too. Twenty per cent of the Pilgrim Fathers of America were Welsh, and almost half of the signatories to the American Declaration of Independence were also Welsh or of Welsh heritage. One in fact, was born close to my home city in south Wales, with Francis Lewis claiming Llandaff as his hometown [source].
!['Hi, I'm a Tea-Partier' [Video]](http://www.urban75.org/blog/images/usa-tea-party-video.jpg)
With the US Congressional mid-term elections starting up today (Tuesday), it seems an appropriate moment to post this amusing video which highlights the sheer madness of the Tea Party’s policies.
Lordy. This is terrifying stuff.
Read on for some example quotes from Tea Party members:
An astonishing selection of colour photographs taken by the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information in rural America during 1939-1943 has been posted online.
Dug up from my photo archives is this series of photos of the faded seaside town of Coney Island, Brooklyn, which I visited in 1986 and 1999.
I was terrified when I first went there – until I realised its rusting grandeur reminded me of Barry Island, back in Wales!
I can always tell if I’ve made a connection with a city by the number of photos I’ve taken during my stay.
Every time I fly over to New York, I’m constantly snapping street scenes, signs, architecture and people, and it’s the same story for most towns and cities I visit.
After a lovely long walk across snow-covered parks and – unwittingly – over a frozen lake or two, I decided to catch the train back to my hotel in the centre of Chicago.
I waited on a deserted 57th Street station for nearly an hour, taking in the chilly air and listening to some suitably wintry and melancholic sounds on my MiniDisc player (remember them?!).
Ten years ago, I found myself being unexpectedly invited to be a guest on a popular US tabloid chat show called Jenny Jones.
They asked if I’d like to do an interview with their London film crew or – wait for it – be flown over to stay for a week in Chicago, all expenses paid.
