For years, I've been living in this area of Brooklyn that up to recently I believe to be called Bensonhurst. Perhaps when I first moved in my wife told me so and whenever I told people where I lived no one ever corrected me, so far. Recently I saw an article in AM New York about the neighborhood and it had a small blurb about Bensonhurst's border. Lo and behold, I realized that all these years I really lived in the neighboring area called Bath Beach. Even when I was staying with the in-laws over near Scarangella Parks, that was not Bensonhurst either.
In the map above, courtesy of Google Earth, I've outlined in Green the streets that form Bensonhurst's border. You may want to click on the picture to zoom in for a better view of the street names. Start from the southern point at the intersection of Stillwell Avenue and 86th Street, it goes north to Kings Highway, then east to MacDonald Avenue. From there, it goes up to 60th Street, then West-ish to New Utrecht Avenue then go back southeast to 86th Street, and finally along 86th Street back to the starting point of 86 and Stillwell.
It is neither bad nor good to live in Bensonhurst. I don't have any special attachments to it that would now shatter because I don't live there. Maybe some years, if I ever move again, I will look back with fond memories, like how I look back at my high school years in Elmhust, Queens. It is just surprising how things in life can go by undisturbed if no one looks at it. Wikipedia does state that it is a common mistake many people make in thinking Bensonhurst to include neighboring streets. I will have to ask my neighbors to find out how many know what area of Brooklyn they really live.
