Who Gives A Shit: Best Kept Secrets [Summer Edition]

I'm feeling slightly guilty for saying summer in the city stinks last week. I didn't mean figuratively.

Because, despite the fact that I am not coming back until after Labor Day if I can avoid it, summer in the city is a bounty of awesomeness.

First off, it is possibly the only time of year that you can actually find a parking spot without spending a half hour circling.

There's Coney Island. Hint: for swimming, there's not as much glass or traffic if you head past the Cyclones stadium toward that weird gated community out there. Sea Gate?

Self-satisfied, well-heeled BREEDERS are on vacation. We've flown the coop, headed for the hills and the Hamptons. You have your sidewalks back, BALLERS! Not to mention your beloved bars.

That new Brooklyn Bridge Park? Way too classy for all the ingrates bitching about slippery rocks. Get some river shoes and STFU!

German-made, of course.

Concerts in the park are a boon. Now, here's a free Brooklyn park concert series you may not know about: Monday nights, 7:30 pm at Wingate Field, located somewhere in the bowels of BK (on Brooklyn Avenue between Rutland Road and Winthrop Street opposite Kings County Hospital). Aretha, August 9!

Speaking of which, I must weigh in on this week's Brownstoner debate about which is better: Central or Prospect Park. Central Park is so much better it's laughable we would even think of debating it. I love my Brooklyn, I know all about how Prospect Park was Olmstead's favorite, but it doesn't hold a candle. We need to face facts here. PP is lovely, it's great, but I know CP; CP was a friend of mine, and PP, you're no CP. And not because of all the money that gets poured into Central Park, either, so don't go there!

Faux drive-ins: Brokelyn has the definitive list. Makes me think of that Italian movie. Shit, what was that called? Yes! Cinema Paradiso.

Uh, I'm running out of things to extoll so I'll leave it to you all to chime in with YOUR best summer in the city
secrets.