Neighborhoodies in the News

Where pride resides

Show your love for the 'hood with a hoodie - and other community-centric clothes and accessories

By MELENA Z. RYZIK
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

New York, someone once said, is a city of neighborhoods. From Astoria to Tottenville, City Island to Williamsburg, residents are devoted to their neighborhood butcher, their local diner, their corner park - the things that make the city feel less like a sprawling metropolis and more like a home.

"People are passionate and fiercely proud of the neighborhood in which they live," says Robert Kahn, editor of the book "City Secrets: New York City," in which prominent people reveal their favorite undiscovered spots. "New York is a very big place, and one of the ways that you make it a smaller place is to become intimately involved in your own neighborhood." So it's only logical that instead of donning that iconic (and now touristy) "I Love New York" T-shirt, New Yorkers are showing their pride by celebrating something a little more local - their boroughs and neighborhoods. And they're doing so with everything from tees to jewelry to board games.

'Brooklyn chauvinism'

Manhattan has always been the center of all things New York. There's never been a shortage of loyalty to Little Italy or Hell's Kitchen, and a trip to 125th St. reveals a rainbow of Harlem love. (In 2000, Harlem native Murphy Heyliger opened Harlemade, a quirky design shop selling tees, hats, totes and more.)

But in recent years, as neighborhoods like Williamsburg in Brooklyn have become magnets for young artists and writers, outward signs of borough pride have become more visible.

This community loyalty doesn't surprise Michael De Zayas, the founder of the Neighborhoodies line of sweatshirts and T-shirts. In late 2002, De Zayas, 30, then an underemployed freelance travel writer, made himself a sweatshirt with the name of his neighborhood, Fort Greene, on it.

"People immediately started asking me about it," he says. Within six months, he was taking 50 orders a day for his custom-made hoodies. Now the company is headquartered in DUMBO, where it's grown to 76 employees, including 17 designers. The first order, for a sweatshirt that spelled out "Ridgewick," a combination of Bushwick and Ridgewood, proved to De Zayas that "people really care about specific neighborhoods."

"Living in New York is more than just living in the city or living in Brooklyn," he says. "It's about the neighborhood and neighborhood pride. Where you live says something about you."