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 don’t know where you live, but if there are blocks that you need to stay away from. For example, if you are near Decatur and Throop, DO NOT walk on the Albany St. stub. I only know because someone told me.
As for the move at 1am…I moved into my house in 2004 b/t 3-6 am. I didn’t want people peepin’ what was I moving into the crib.
move to the safer parts of brooklyn for less. bensonhurst and gravesend is cheaper and better.
I’m sorry that happened to you, EFB. I agree w/ 12:27, all is takes is a few punk-@$$ f*cks to make your life a living hell. It’s a damn shame and we know that it comes with the territory, and it’s not going to change so long as there are still roving bands of teenagers and freak-cases, which there always will be, to some extent! I’m not into blaming the victim, but if you’ve chosen to take these kind of risks, being confident and attentive to your surroundings is the best you can do. And people with the ipods and cellphones, put them away, please, especially in BS. You should be tuned in to your surroundings, and are just asking for it.
you know what you can handle. be happy and enjoy your life. if it isn’t working for you, move. only you know.
To be fair, you can go to as many CB meetings as you want; doesn’t mean some punk asshole isn’t going to try something. They’re not checking the attendance roster.
Nah, but I feel for EFB. It’s hard to find a place you love, and people fucking with you on the street gets to you. I know I’d have given up after three — at my last place, I pretty much gave up after 1. But I was renting.
Stones and bottles thrown at you occassionally thoughout the year????!!!! My God. Are you a gay couple? No way I’m saying that you deserve to go thru that, but if you are, why the hell would you move to Bed-Stuy???? Did you expect more open-minded people there?
There’s so much anger and resentment there. They know how much those brownstones cost, and when they certain people there, hell, they just assume you’re rich and an easy target. Even in 2003 those prices were still high.
Anyway, I feel for you. The stress of living in some of those neighborhoods takes a tremendous toll on both the physical and mental health. That’s one of the reasons why high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes in Bed-Stuy are among the highest rates in the city.
ronnie, some people would rather risk an occasional mugging than have to put up with the kinds of people who live in the areas you listed. It’s just how you weigh your options. I’d pay more to live in FG than I would to live in any of those areas, muggings or not.
Under Bush, poverty is way up while more wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few. You live near people who live below the poverty line. I believe that the jobless rate for black men in Bed-Stuy is above 50%!
You should stay but be smart. Please take care of yourself.
Thats why you buy in Carroll gardens , cobble hill, Park slope, Brooklyn heights and the areas that are most desired. Hello just go to the precincts and ask whats going on it’s not hard folks all it takes is a little common sense.