Jonas Guisao Interview 08/09/2025
Photo by Randi Rosenbaum
Jonas Guisao Interview Transcript:
NATASHA: Hello, I am Natasha Fearon and I'm here with Jonas Wisso?
JONAS: Guisao
NATASHA: Guisao, at the Park Slope Old Timers Reunion at 4th Street and 6th Avenue on Saturday, August 9th, 2025. Will you please spell your name for me, sir?
JONAS: J-O-N-A-S, last name is G-U-I-S-A-O.
NATASHA: What is your relationship to Park Slope or to Brooklyn?
JONAS: I'm born and raised in Brooklyn Park Slope all my life and actually became a police officer and patrol the 7-8 precinct.
NATASHA: Do you have a particular powerful or important memory of Park Slope or Brooklyn you'd like to share?
JONAS: All of it. My whole life is in Park Slope. I was born and raised here. I attended all the schools within walking distance and I ended up being a police officer and worked in my neighborhood. So it means a lot to me.
NATASHA: Why did you decide to come to the Park Slope Old Timers Reunion today?
JONAS: To come see old friends that I don't see all year round and I have the opportunity to visit with everybody, and we're all located without having to go individual places and see everybody. So we're all here and we get to say hi to each other every year.
NATASHA: What are some of the things you think more people should know about Park Slope or Brooklyn based on your own experience?
JONAS: A lot of people don't understand that Park Slope was a beautiful place to live even in the early 80s. It was always a nice place. You think it's nice now, but we used to have community trips so the whole block would go to Bear Mountain, Westchester Country Club, they used to come get us on Tuesdays and bring us swimming. So it was always a good, diverse neighborhood, and it was a beautiful place to grow up as a child.
NATASHA: What are your hopes for the future of the neighborhood and Brooklyn?
JONAS: That it keeps driving and you know I don't really like all the big buildings that they put up here because there was a smaller community and they're making it more commercial and then overcrowding it so it takes away from the beauty and all the old homes and how the neighborhood used to be is more commercial now than residential.
NATASHA: Thank you.
JONAS: You're welcome. That was it?