We’re not sure if Evelyn Ortner ever read Brownstoner.com, but it’s doubtful the site would have ever come into being had the strong-willed preservationist not pioneered the revival of her Park Slope neighborhood back in the 1960s, leading the landmark drive, luring young couples from Manhattan and winning the support of bankers and gas company execs alike. Judging from the piece in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, she might not have appreciated some of the discussions that draw attentions to some of the problems that still face many brownstone nabes still undergoing a process of revitalization, but hopefully she would have taken pleasure in the pure concentration of people who, like her, have an obsession with these old houses and communities.
Mothering Brooklyn [NY Times]