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March 24, 2008
Dumbo: A Bridge Too Far?
Newsflash: Brooklyn's not for everyone. This weekend The Times reports on a woman who lived in Manhattan for 17 years (mostly in Alphabet City) after moving to NYC from Australia; last year, however, she decided to uproot to Vinegar Hill after visiting a friend who had bought a condo in Dumbo. And now? "I feel trapped here in a way,” she says, and apparently still spends a great deal of her time in Manhattan, despite the fact that she rents a studio for work only a few blocks from her Front Street home. She's also been slow to explore nearby neighborhoods like the Heights and Dumbo, and says she occasionally feels unsafe in her new 'hood. More than anything, the article is a curio for the Times's real estate section, which so rarely expends ink on neighborhood stories that aren't seen through a rose-colored lens. The question is, now that the real estate market is cooling, are we going to see more and more of these Brooklyn backlash stories?
She Left Her Heart in Manhattan [NY Times]
Photo by DumboNYC.
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go back to manhattan stupid ass!
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:12 AM
she moved to a crappy condo in a neighborhood that sucks with no subway access or streetlights and surrounded by housing projects and powerplants. This just sounds like she made a dumb decision. Why woudl this be representative of all of brooklyn?
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:12 AM
"She usually gets together with her friends, almost all of whom are psychics, in Manhattan" .. ha ha ha ha. See if you can read my mind now? PLEASE MOVE BACK TO EAST VILLAGE
Posted by: martis at March 24, 2008 10:15 AM
10:22 i thought dumbo was one of the most sought after locations in bklyn, hence the exorbitant prices? no you say "a neighborhood that sucks"?
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:16 AM
10:12am - no subway access? do you even know where DUMBO is?
Posted by: martis at March 24, 2008 10:16 AM
agreed. vinegar hill is not really representative.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:16 AM
"now that the real estate market is cooling"
LOL.Euphemism of the decade.Brownstoner you are priceless.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:19 AM
get your ass back to manhattan and don't come back!
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:20 AM
Vinegar HIll isn't even a real neighborhood in my book. even the churches have all been torn down there. It has nothing. No wonder she misses Manhattan.
You have to be very young and in it for the short term or for the laughs to move to a place like VH or Red Hook or Bushwick.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:22 AM
I have lived in Brooklyn for decades - but frankly Vinegar Hill does suck and if I had a choice I'd pick virtually anywhere in Manhattan over that 'non' neighborhood called Vinegar Hill
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:24 AM
I wonder if she likes the noise of the subway going over the Bridge, the noise is deafening, I don't know how anyone pays those prices to live thier but they do, just goes to show you everything will eventually sell.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:26 AM
I wonder if she likes the noise of the subway going over the Bridge, the noise is deafening, I don't know how anyone pays those prices to live thier but they do, just goes to show you everything will eventually sell.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:27 AM
This whiny wench is complaining about her 1000 sq foot condo....soilder on my dear! The agony--poor Angus Young--the pooch Yorkie must be sooo lonely.
Typical NY Times profile of the entitled class.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:28 AM
Ugh. What a moron she is. Who the hell moves to a neighborhood without knowing a single thing about it?
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:28 AM
10.28 - Why is she entitled to it? What did she do to be entitled?
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:39 AM
Like the use of the word 'hood after saying that she felt unsafe. Hmmmmm is all I'll say.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:42 AM
I moved to Brooklyn 12 years ago. I'm still not sure I like it.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:45 AM
Like the use of the word 'hood after saying that she felt unsafe. Hmmmmm is all I'll say.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:51 AM
Probably. Brooklyn's slowly starting to get seedy again because of the uptick in crime, so living in a place comparably expensive to Manhattan, but less convenient and more dangerous probably won't strike people as too pleasant.
Why buy a 800k condo in Williamsburg just to have 0 transportation options and Crips from Manhattan and Scholes hanging around outside the local bar beating peoples' heads in?
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 11:00 AM
"Who the hell moves to a neighborhood without knowing a single thing about it?"
You'd be surprised how many people buy in an area they don't know just because they read that it was 'hot' or a friend of a friend moved there. It's amazing! People move into my neighborhood and then they act shocked at the lack of amenities or the noise issues or other things that anyone could figure out if they spent a few hours here. It's sad.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 11:02 AM
People say entitled when they mean "self-entitled". (Entitled meaning basically the opposite of what they are trying to say).
They've never opened a dictionary.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 11:25 AM
11:00 AM guest -
"...uptick in crime"
Who is your psychic? Because if we are going to see an uptick in crime - we haven't yet - then Grace, the story's subject, might need that info in order to make an informed decision about where to buy next.
Posted by: BoerumHill at March 24, 2008 11:26 AM
Brownstoner--fix the problem with your website. People are double posting due to your technical issues...
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 11:27 AM
Ms. Luminato must not be such a good psychic, otherwise she would have seen this one coming.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 11:35 AM
She sounds rather foolish. She moved to Vinegar Hill for goodness sake. It's out of the way with nothing really there. You can schep over to DUMBO or go on an extend hike to the C train at High Street to get into Manhattan. Honestly, what did she expect. If you want the isolation (desirable in its own way) of Vinegar Hill, fine; but to be surprised about the lack of well, anything (since there isn't anything there in terms of retail or amenties), in Vinegar Hill is just moronic.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 12:14 PM
11:02 - you are so ill-informed, that i'm surprised you get through the day.
there are no housing projects in williamsburg, no gangs, and several subway lines and stops.
i spent well over $800K, and absolutely adore my home and the area. please keep your idiotic comments to yourself. prefer you don't trash my beloved neighborhood with your insults and lies.
also, manhattan psf price is still 50-200% more than williamsburg, so they are not remotely equal from a financial viewpoint.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 12:18 PM
So defensive about Brooklyn, my goodness. It's not about being in Brooklyn or in Vinegar Hill. It's about being a single woman and moving somewhere without amenities and a bustling community. There are parts of Manhattan like that too. This woman simply did not make a good choice about where to live for her lifestyle. If you are single and want a social life, you need to spend more money to be where the action is. Just the way it is.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 12:21 PM
The uptick in crime is happening now, boyo, and has been going on since the end of last year. Just read any Brooklyn blog and it'll probably have a post about a rash of break-ins, beatings, muggings at gun point, car fires, etc. Definitely nothing like 2006 or the start of 2007.
Budget cuts, police force cuts, increasing unemployment... what did you expect was going to happen? Brooklyn did not gentrify the way Manhattan gentrified.
and there are no housing projects in Williamsburg? Dude, some of the biggest housing projects in Brooklyn are in Williamsburg - look down Lorimer street, you see those humongous high rises? Those aren't condos, and it takes about 10 minutes to walk from there to where your condo is. and yes, there have been some pretty horrible beatings the past few weekends in WBURG.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 12:26 PM
Hoo Boy! To have this woman's problems!
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 12:27 PM
Oh come on, 12:26, we know the stats. It made national news when stats were released. Crime is down in NYC and the only districts crime went up were in parts of Brooklyn that do not have over-million dollar houses. You're not going to send anyone into a panic here with your vague suggestion of "probably seeing" rashes of crime.
As for muggings you see on police blotters those have always happened. Lower crime does not mean totally crime-free. Not even in Park Slope. People are pretty realistic about that.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 12:42 PM
there are gangs in williamsburg, concentrated around the S streets on the other side of the BQE. I am surprised people don't know this.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 1:07 PM
12.18 - "The Latin Kings are also on the rise in Williamsburg, the stomping ground of the Dominicans Don't Play gang, and several Mexican gangs like La Chicanos and Reyes Locos."
daily news 2/12/08 - its even gotten to the mainstream press.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 1:15 PM
"The uptick in crime is happening now, boyo, and has been going on since the end of last year."
Wow - talk about the "sky is falling".....
The year is less than 90 days old - and last year crime was at an all time low - so I truly fail to see how you can claim that crime is on the uptick, with such little data yet available - check back in September and then maybe you might have something to say.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 1:18 PM
12:26 wasn't talking exclusively about gangs in Williamsburg. So don't use those to defend his claim all of Brooklyn is seeing an uptick in crime.
L.A. has a terrible latin gang problem, so do some other cities. It's not just about Brooklyn, it's a larger issue. To deal with that issue you can't just talk about Williamsburg. Like one suggestion, any time any of these a**holes are busted even for a traffic ticket deport them back to their home countries. Something that's not being done. For whatever reason.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 1:39 PM
Williamsburg certainly has projects. Ever heard of the Williamsburg Houses? I think you mean "Bedford doesn't have projects."
Vinegar Hill is great if you're a weirdo and don't want services. I, for example, love it and would move there if a downturn made it affordable again. But it's a stupid place to live if you like seeing people or doing things... it's a couple dozen houses in the middle of nothing. That's the point.
Posted by: Zach at March 24, 2008 1:51 PM
silly article - why would this woman agree to participating in this story?
maybe i'm a "weirdo" but i like vinegar hill b/c it's convenient to all the amenities of dumbo, bk heights and downtown bk w/o being in the middle of everything. anyway, vinegar hill is going to be dumbo 20 years from now in the way that much of sunset park and windsor terrace is now park slope. and that's when i'll sell.
Posted by: BrooklynLove at March 24, 2008 2:19 PM
2.19 - you mean they're moving the farragut houses
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 2:24 PM
So she buys in Vinegar Hill after falling in love with DUMBO, but now that she's so close, she doesn't even hang out in DUMBO, Fort Greene, or any other cool Brooklyn neighborhood? Please send this psychic back to Manhattan...
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 2:31 PM
So she buys in Vinegar Hill after falling in love with DUMBO, but now that she's so close, she doesn't even hang out in DUMBO, Fort Greene, or any other cool Brooklyn neighborhood? Please send this psychic back to Manhattan...
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 2:33 PM
the woman is stupid along with other new dumbo residents who complain. they obviously didn't do their research before they moved. just go back to manhattan where you belong.
i think 1:15 is right. there is a rise in gangs in williamsburg.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 3:47 PM
2:24 - as far as i know ingersoll is staying put yet i count 4 lux developments currently going up right next to them. please explain.
Posted by: BrooklynLove at March 24, 2008 8:32 PM
As a pretty old broad too bitter to laugh at much, I would just like to say I LOVE my very real neighborhood (RED HOOK), and plan to stay until I'm under water.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:26 PM
thank you for not liking my neighborhood. i won't have to deal with more clueless dipships congesting my sidewalk. now i can get back to enjoying the place.
Posted by: guest at March 24, 2008 10:59 PM
guest 12:42 - You new here? Everyone knows anecdotal evidence on blogs trumps ComPStat.
Posted by: BoerumHill at March 25, 2008 1:22 AM
Seriously! Go back to Manhattan. If you like to spend all of your time there, why move to Brooklyn? I live in Dumbo and love it. It's perfect for my lifestyle. And I love exploring the surrounding areas- the Heights, Cobble Hill, Ft. Greene. I would much rather hang out in these 'hoods then in Manhattan. But it is not for everyone. If I were young and single still, I would suck it up and pay the Manhattan rents to be in the middle of the action. This idiot "psychic" needs to move back to Alphabet City!
Posted by: guest at March 25, 2008 2:56 PM
Seriously! Go back to Manhattan. If you like to spend all of your time there, why move to Brooklyn? I live in Dumbo and love it. It's perfect for my lifestyle. And I love exploring the surrounding areas- the Heights, Cobble Hill, Ft. Greene. I would much rather hang out in these 'hoods then in Manhattan. But it is not for everyone. If I were younger and single still, I would suck it up and pay the Manhattan rents to be in the middle of the action. This idiot "psychic" needs to move back to Alphabet City!
Posted by: guest at March 25, 2008 3:07 PM
I feel so bad for her. A great apartment and selling those BUDDHAS for 2k-8k she is doing ok... If she wasnt single she probably would be happy in that apt... I dont get it the NYT is a joke seriously. A single woman moving to a desolate area what was she expecting. The factthey classify all of Bklyn like that is a joke.
Posted by: guest at March 25, 2008 3:38 PM
I feel so bad for her. A great apartment and selling those BUDDHAS for 2k-8k she is doing ok... If she wasnt single she probably would be happy in that apt... I dont get it the NYT is a joke seriously. A single woman moving to a desolate area what was she expecting. The factthey classify all of Bklyn like that is a joke.
Posted by: guest at March 25, 2008 3:40 PM
I love brooklyn but I wouldn't want to live in Vinegar Hill. Dumbo's far enough from the subway, it only has the F. I can't blame her for being unhappy, but it's no reflection on Brooklyn, but merely one of Brooklyn's least desirable neighborhoods.
Posted by: guest at March 26, 2008 11:54 PM
This was a ridiculous article and most of the comments here are absurd and totally uninformed. I live in this building and have heard from Grace that she was dismayed by the story and felt she was misquoted. When she stated that she feels trapped, she says she was making a reference to feeling trapped in a mortgage after many years as a renter.
Our building is a little over one block away from the F train stop on Jay Street and about 20 feet from the dividing line between Dumbo and Vinegar Hill. There is nothing desolate about the neighborhood, especially this part of it, unless you consider Dumbo desolate. There ARE street lights and Vinegar Hill is no more surrounded by the projects than Dumbo and Fort Greene are. Despite our proximity to Dumbo we also have absolutely no noise from the BQE and the bridges. Vinegar Hill and Dumbo are very well policed and there is a strong community in Vinegar Hill with an active neighborhood watch.
Several apartments in this building flipped since we all closed last summer and every one netted at least a $100,000 profit.
Posted by: guest at April 18, 2008 8:33 PM
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