bedstuytreasurechest.jpgThe Times has a story about an architectural designer who’s moved to Bed-Stuy from Alphabet City and claims that Brooklyn reconnects me to New York City as a cultural and social phenomenon. Michael Andaloro lived on Avenue B for more than two decades and sold two apartments there for $1.2 million last year; he originally paid $60,000 for the properties. Andaloro recently bought a Bed-Stuy building for $775,000 and spent almost that much on renovating the structure, which he says was a 7 on the squalor scale. The new Brooklynite says he doesn’t miss the East Village, which was like spring break in Orlando on Thursday nights and that his new neighborhood’s diversity and possibilities are like the Lower East Side of lore. And, of course, he’s banking on his Bed-Stuy investment eventually paying off the same way Alphabet City did: I always figure that a bleak or notorious neighborhood translates into cachet one day.
Rediscovering New York as It Used to Be [NY Times]
Photo by …neene…


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  1. So, you recent commenters stating that people should send their kids to troubled schools in transitional neighborhoods: how many kids do you have in such schools? Are you willing to sacrifice the safety and education of your children in the interest of this principal? How many of the long-term middle-class residents of these neighborhoods do you think send their kids to better schools outside the neighborhood? Do you think your presence and willingness to volunteer is enough to turn around a bad school the moment your child arrives? How many years do you think this magic turnaround will take?