After Three Strikes, Is Recent Bed-Stuy Arrival Out?
Writer Douglass Rushkoff made headlines last December when he announced in a blog post that he and his family were leaving Brooklyn after he was mugged on Christmas Eve outside his Park Slope apartment. While many people thought the response was an overreaction, getting mugged is a traumatic experience against which the rationality of statistics…
Writer Douglass Rushkoff made headlines last December when he announced in a blog post that he and his family were leaving Brooklyn after he was mugged on Christmas Eve outside his Park Slope apartment. While many people thought the response was an overreaction, getting mugged is a traumatic experience against which the rationality of statistics are of little comfort. Now another blogger is questioning whether he should stay in his neighborhood after having been mugged on Monday night for the third time in as many years. After five years in London and one on the Upper West Side, blogger Eating for Brooklyn scraped together enough dough for a down payment on browntone fixer-upper in Bed Stuy in 2003 only to get a rather jarring reception:
By the time we unloaded the last box from the rental truck, it was 1am. 1am and raining. The asphalt was shiny and slick and the street lights reflected yellow, red and green. Our block had the feeling of a movie set. It was picture perfect. Just as we closed the door to the truck with a thump, a passerby turned around and held us up. He ripped through my pockets frantically searching for cash. And I stupidly had $500.00 in my front pocket. I slipped a few singles off the wad of dough and gave it to him. He started walking away and came back with a vengeance as if the few singles I had given him were like spitting in his face. He ransacked my pockets again. Nothing. He never found the $500.00. Picture perfect and no one around.
We felt nothing but horror and panic later that night as we searched out the safest corner of the house to sleep — the fourth floor front room overlooking the top of the sycamore tree. With our sleeping bags on pine floors, our hearts pounded and kept us up all night. We had spent our life savings only to be held up at gunpoint. We felt we had been had.
All was quiet until February 2006 when the writer was pummelled in the head by a gang of teenagers; then on this past Monday night he was mugged again a block from his house.
I feel paralyzed. The rational voice says “Leave now.” The voice of fantasy says “Stick it out. It’ll be worth it in the long run.” Maybe I was stupid for not having left three and half years ago. With the neighborhood in transition and deep into renovation and debt, what would you do?
Well, what would you do?
3 Muggings in 3 Years, What Would You Do? [Eating for Brooklyn]
I love how people love to put their ‘political’ spin on everything….
People arent robbing people in Bed-Stuy b/c their pissed about gentrification….nor are poor people robbing rich people to exact some sort of social justice.
Criminals arent exactly an ambitious group – they generally vicitimize those that are closest and easiest to victimize. There are simply more criminals living in neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy then in Brooklyn Heights and therefore your more likely to be robbed in Bed Stuy. Additionally while there are some crimes that ‘cross’ racial and economic lines these are the exceptions; Unfortunatly robbing some rich white guy is going to garner a heck of a lot more attention then some poor black or hispanic guy – so the criminals tend to go with the easy prey (see earlier comment re:ambition)- sad to say that your poor (non-gentrifying) neighbors have most likely been victimized by criminals far worse then you.
Which is why zero tolerance for crime is more of a (positive) social program for the poor then anyone else. Despite liberal bias the other way
Eating move to Downtown Jersey City or better yet Hoboken NJ. The Brownstones are not as great but the area is safer than BedSTUY. I live in Hoboken and walk around at all times of the night. Own a clapboard row house in the downtown area and rent it out. Go at all times of the night and have never had a problem. Of course crime can occur anywhere but Bed Stuy may be a bit too rough for you .
“move to the safer parts of brooklyn for less. bensonhurst and gravesend is cheaper and better.”
All I can say to that is, eeewhh. Not even if it were free.
jesus. hard to believe people still have the nerve to type out the “crime as a result of gentrification” argument. so prior to gentrification, when poor people mugged other poor people, what was the justification then? preposterous. the ONLY difference is that gentrification brings affluent people who complain more loudly about crime, post about it on blogs, etc. which by the way is a good thing, if it brings more attention to the problem.
I should’ve known that this would turn into a discussion about gentrification. I was just telling my personal story and not really trying to make any bigger points about displacement, rich vs. poor, etc. You can obviously draw your own conclusions.
I don’t think the people who attacked me did so out of retribution for gentrification. I think they were opportunists. They saw an opening and pounced. I really don’t know what went through their heads, but something tells me it wasn’t revenge for my new French doors.
Just want to make one point about Bed-Stuy: it is a huge neighborhood, twice the size of other ‘hoods in the Brownstone Belt. There is a great deal of variation from one street to the next. Personally I’ve lived in the Western end of Bed-Stuy for 2 years and never had any problems – and that includes plenty of times walking home late at night from the subway. And interestingly, on my block and nearby blocks I have never seen evidence of any car break-ins, whereas in Ft. Greene where we used to live broken glass on the street was a common occurrence. I am not meaning to be a Pollyanna about crime in Bed-Stuy; I know it exists and is heightened by the economic disparity. I’m just saying that people who say “Ohmigod! I would NEVER live in Bed-Stuy!” should come spend a few weeks on my block. There’s a great vibe here with immaculately kept homes and a sense that people are looking out for each other. That being said, I don’t get why people are blaming the victim here. It’s dreadful that this guy has experienced so much in 3 years, and if I were him I would be thinking about moving too. Maybe for whatever reason his block has some tenacious bad elements. Whether he stays or goes, I wish him luck.
Agree with 1:09. Everyone here thinks gentrification is such a great thing, mostly out of false hope it’s going to push all the “undesirables” out the neighborhood. But it’s not working that way. With Section 8, projects, and other factors it’s the poor who will be the last to move out.
Who gets pushed out of these neighborhoods – working class, lower middle class, and the middle class – people that these neighborhoods ACTUALLY need. All these wealthy people moving into Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, Fort Greene (and please don’t cry, oh I’m not rich – if you can buy an $800,000 home you’re practically in the top 10% of the country.) are not necessarily making things better for everyone in these communities. They’re creating more class and social turmoil, and extremes like this, wealthy people vs extreme poor, well, expect a pressure cooker situation.
Prices HAVE to come down to give regular working class and middle class a better, opportunity to live in these hoods. Not people who are demanding gourmet coffee shops and speciality cheese stores, but at lease insist on clean supermarkets that everyone can afford to go. People who will be sending their kids to the local public schools (yeah, mostly because they can’t afford private schools) but will attend PTAs and be involved, whose children will help have a stabilizing effect on other kids.
Working class folks care about their neighborhood, will sweep their porch steps, and maintain their properties, if they’re not spending more than half their monthly income on just the mortgage. and yes, I’ll say it, Brown and Black faces that will not be so intimidating, that will blend in and not be the constant reminder to those struggling what they lack and their status on the totem pole of capitalism.
Until that happens, a million dollar home in these neighborhoods is a horrid waste. And people who move into those homes will be putting themselves in harm’s way.
Get a big dog – scary-looking, but sweet-natured. There are tons of pit mixes you can adopt.
BTW, EFB, you have way more courage than I – I would have moved after the second incident.
sorry, my comment was for 1:21…not 1:09.