CBS News New York hosting pop-up newsroom at Brighton Jubilee Festival. Here's how to meet our team.
NEW YORK – This Sunday will be the 47th annual Brighton Jubilee Festival, a celebration of the diversity and history of the waterfront neighborhood.
Close to 125,000 people, multiple entertainment stages and dozens of vendors are expected. CBS News New York will be there, too, hosting a pop-up newsroom where you can meet reporter Hannah Kliger and our Brooklyn team.
You can find us on Brighton Beach Avenue between Brighton 12th and Brighton 13th streets, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Pat Singer recalls Brighton Beach's history
As the trains come and go outside her office window in Brighton Beach, Pat Singer has seen a lot of things change in the area.
"I love this neighborhood. I love what it stood for," she said.
The bustling, culturally rich waterfront neighborhood has an array of unique restaurants and stores. New apartment buildings stand between rows of pre-war structures.
Singer said the vibrancy of the neighborhood didn't come easy; there was a time in the 1970s when businesses were shuttered and housing was a struggle.
"We had drugs bad here, and we had prostitution going on in a house near a school. It was very troublesome and scary," she told CBS News New York's Brooklyn reporter, Hannah Kliger.
Ron Schweiger is the Brooklyn Borough Historian. His wife grew up steps away and saw these challenges first hand.
"A lot of people ... started moving to Long Island, New Jersey, and eventually to the new Brooklyn suburb known as South Florida," he said.
After seeing the devastation in her community, Singer founded the Brighton Neighborhood Association in 1977. It began as a grassroots movement, advocating for more resources and a better quality of life.
"We fought like a war on different fronts. We fought for housing. We fought for the seniors to get into programs, get them so they could afford their housing because it was an aging community," she said.
With time, she began seeing a renewed interest in the neighborhood.
"The collapse of the Soviet Union started a lot of immigrants from Russia, from Ukraine, coming to the United States. A lot of them settled here," Schweiger said.
Also in 1977, Singer and the association hosted a gathering along Brighton Beach Avenue, which turned out to be a big success. That was the first of what would become the Brighton Jubilee Festival, which has since turned into an iconic, end-of-summer celebration.
"We wanted to send out a message saying, 'We're fine, we're well. Come invest, come and live in Brighton Beach. It's safe,''' she said.
Of this Sunday's festival, Singer said, "This is what I dreamed of. This diverse crowd coming here to Brighton Beach, this diverse crowd living here and getting along. And we're all neighbors and we're Americans."
Have a story idea or tip in Brooklyn? Email Hannah by CLICKING HERE.
