THIS THANKSGIVING: THE COLLEGE POINT CLASS CONFLICT PUB CRAWL (CPC^2)

What better way to explore the fiber of the community that created the Bellinger boys than through drinking? Hard work, racism, culturally reinforced ignorance, factories, pizza, violence, salt water, bad bus service, jet fuel odor, football/baseball/hockey, that's what College Point is. You can ask the Wikipedia or you can ask me.

Or you can drink...with us. There is about a 90% chance of this event turning violent, but it wouldn't be the real, blue-collar New York City otherwise. Come explore the core of urban redneck society, a densely populated ecotone of mostly lower/lower middle-class white Bush voters, Puerto Rican flags, and wealthy Asians who just don't assimilate beyond those giant SUVs. It's the real fucking city! The one the folks in Williamsburg simultaneously fear and emulate! The one the world is afraid to admit exists! It's reality! It's beautiful! IT'S HOME.

Or it was once, and it will be again.

Here are the rules:

• Everyone is welcome.
• The tour starts at the Bellinger family home, a short walk from the Q65 bus which runs frequently from Main Street Station.
• No cars, but lots of walking.
• Digital cameras are a must.
• We will attempt to remain as nonviolent and exploratory as possible.

Here's the route I'm thinking of. No real weblinks, because these places only exist in reality, oddly enough.

• Start at Bellinger family home. Walk suburban 9th Ave to the College Point Ale House, a converted house between the now-defunct barber shop where I got my first haircut and the now-Korean-owned Italian deli that still makes the best combo hero in the city.
  
• Up the CP Blvd hill past the Poppenhusen Monument to the Point Bar & Grill. Our mother would walk us by here on shopping trips and say, "Look at those filthy drunks!"
  
• Up 15th Ave to the Five Corners Restaurant, the only German restaurant left in this formerly German neighborhood. It may already be out of business. I've never eaten there.
  
• Continue along 14th Ave to Point Look Out, a bar in a house across from a gas station that advertises sports games and metal bands. Maybe we'll catch a band.
  
• Walk toward the abandoned Flushing Airport (who grows up in a urban neighborhood with an abandoned airport?) toward the Boulder Creek chain steakhouse in mega strip mall. Consume shitty 20 oz Beck's Oktoberfest as a respite from Bud and Miller Lite.
  
• Explore area of Conrad Poppenhusen's old factories. There's a building that has housed short-lived strip clubs and metal bars. Maybe there's beer there.
  
• Long, diagonal trek to a bar that now shows up as "Vam Corp" in the phone book but was once called the Boulevard. This one could be rough.

At this point, the weak will be able to leave via the bus stop outside. The strong will brown-bag 40s or Sparks cans outside of a half-dozen bodegas and battle off the gang youth amassed in front.

Who's in? Post a comment.