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]
Get a couple of big dogs.
Or leave.
I got attacked (punched in the head, a millimeter from my eye, with a friggin KEY) at 56th and 6th Ave in manhattan.
I’d rather get mugged in Bed Stuy ANY DAY.
All neighborhoods change. Even neighborhoods that seemed like they would never improve have, in fact, dramtically improved. Bed Stuy has the most remarkable and largest concentration of brownstones on the planet.
Stay! The neighborhood needs you!
Yeesh, what’s with the ‘blame the victim’ pile-on? An “emotional tax”? Give me a break — it’s a violent, scary crime! Sure, everyone should take steps to protect themselves and not looking like a walking target, but it’s not unreasonable to be freaked out and fed up after a run like this. I don’t know what the answer is, beyond evaluating how fast the neighborhood is changing and what you might be able to do differently to avoid future problems.
Pricing people out of neighborhoods is horrible (I’m priced out of ever buying in mine, which I love), but say this for gentrification — diminishing street crime is a *good thing.* Finding a way to upgrade neighborhoods and create new opportunities for existing residents without displacing them is the right way to do it; like everyone, I’m frustrated that isn’t what happens.
Uh, am I the only one who thinks I would be cutting my losses after three muggings?
Have a little sympathy for this dude.
hey, 11:56-two of the queeniest looking guys i know bought and renovated a gorgeous house on lexington and bedford. they have been there 4 years and have nothing but glowing words to say about the neighborhood. yes, they were the first (many have since arrived) white people. they are active in the community, attend block association meetings and treat people the way they wish to be treated. the original poster has just had some bad luck-and is probably running around looking scared.
Listen To me: Go!
Get out of there before it’s too late.
You can get mugged anywhere in Brooklyn
BUT
You are more likely to get mugged in some parts of Brooklyn than others.
Why is it so unreasonable to say that?
sorry to bring this up, but i believe EFB is gay, no??
as a gay man myself, i can assure you i wouldn’t feel especially comfortable in bed stuy. you need to be EXTRA careful!! bed stuy doesn’t exactly have a reputation for being gay friendly.
i’d sell and move to park slope, windsor terrace or kensington. it’s a lot more friendly over here. more expensive, but the peace of mind in knowing you are among other friendly faces is well worth it.
we live on ny’s “best block” (fg) and i can tell you that in 10 years, there have been more muggings in front of our houses than i can even count. almost everyone i know has been mugged-right here. this whole “my neighborhood is safer than yours” conversation is getting old…bed stuy is changing so quickly, but most of you readers wouldn’t know that. crime happens everywhere-don’t hang out at 1 am with 500 bucks in your fron pocket and then whine about it.