Tuesday, October 25, 2011
News Norwegian Town Plans to Recreate Post-War Bay Ridge
Posted by Henry Stewart on Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 9:49 AM
Bay Ridge, once home to a significant Norwegian-immigrant population, will officially become the sister city to Farsund, a municipality in southern Norway, the Home Reporter reports. Farsund is in a county called Vest Agder, which maintains strong connections to our city and country; it holds an American festival every year in the last weekend of June and features a "Brooklyn Square," which includes a general store that sells American goods. According to the paper, "townspeople plan to recreate the look of Bay Ridge of the ‘50s and ‘60s in the area near Brooklyn Square," providing a non-Staten Island refuge for those—like the commenters mourning Hinsch's at Brooklyn Daily—who miss the old neighborhood.
Also at Brooklyn Square is a bar and supper club called 8th Avenue, in honor of once-Scandinavian Sunset Park's main thoroughfare, which locals called Lapskaus Boulevard. According to a roughly translated Facebook page:
8th Avenue idea is to take our costumers back to the Brooklyn area in the 50th's and 60th's, a time when the Norwegian emigrants had strong influence in that part of New York. Emigrants transported to our guests' palates back to 1950 - 1960 century Brooklyn, New York, where a part of Brooklyn was strongly influenced by immigration from such Lista. [Lista is a nearby community.]
The sister-cities agreement will be celebrated at a ceremony in Leif Ericson Park on Saturday morning; a sunset maple tree will be planted in memory of those killed this summer in the terrorist attacks in Oslo.
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