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 remember how the muggers would wait for those Prat students, especially the Asian ones, coming home late or simply waiting for the bus on Myrtle Ave in broad daylight They were like ATM’s to the local kids. Hey want to go to McD’s?, lets mug that skinny art student over there.
Another case of “White man wishes to throw one good punch before he’s to old” syndrome. Good thing the guy doesn’t own a gun.
I’ve lived in Bed-Stuy for over three years and never had any real problems. Of course I do think about it after hearing stories like this. I’ve walked home from the subway too late a few times, but for the most part I’m leaving the subway with a group of people and I feel pretty safe.
It can happen anywhere. I personally know of two incidents of people being help up by gunpoint, one in front of their prime Fort Greene brownstone, one in Williamsburg. It’s horrible when it happens anywhere to anyone. I’m sorry you’ve had to experience this so many times.
I agree re: common sense. I’ve lived in NY all my life, including pre-gentrification Bushwick/Williamsburg, and right now in Clinton Hill, and I have never been mugged. All of you guys moving into areas that are still rough around the edges need to take care, be watchful as youre walking home late at night, try to have company as much as possible, avoid certain blocks, etc. I feel that many of the criminals specifically target people who look like outsiders (in some of these neighborhoods that means white) so it’s my opinion that those people need to take special care.
Must be horrible to be mugged, though. I definitely don’t want to blame the victim, but there are certainly things we can do to mitigate the likelihood of being mugged, attacked, etc.
What a bunch of b.s. This guy was out at 1a.m. with $500 bucks in his pocket. Hey, I got mugged at 2:00 in the afternoon on the corner of Park Avenue and 89th Street. All those doormen didn’t do a thing. Crime happens. Get over it or move out to the suburbs (where you’ll likely get run down by a drunk teenager in a used SUV).
It’s a personal decision. I can’t say that I’m surprised though, because as the above posters pointed out, just because you moved there and spent a lot of money to do so doesn’t automatically mean the neighborhood is going to change overnight. Real estate booms don’t change neighborhoods, no matter how much you wish they did.
Part of it is also common sense – as someone else pointed out, why would you unpack at 1 am in the rain? In ANY neighborhood?
I really feel for you. I live in Clinton Hill and have not had any problems in the past 5 or so years.
What part of Bed Stuy does this person live in? I stress that I’m not blaming the victim, but you really have to keep your wits about you and use common sense pretty much anywhere in the City, especially neighborhoods with high crime/mugging incidents. I’m always extremely cautious when moving – never late at night, etc.
I’d also ask your neighbors about their experiences and advice if they are not being mugged. You might be putting yourself in harms way out of ignorance of bad streets to walk down etc.
Heck, I remember in the 80s certain blocks on the east side of mid town manhattan that were not safe to walk on at night.
As you walk around, be aware of your surroundings. Pretend your in another country on vacation where you stick out and crime can be an issue and keep your wits about you.
We did it the old-fashioned way: moved into a still-dangerous neighborhood because it was all we could afford, and weren’t the least bit surprised at 3 attempted break-ins, a purse-snatching (victim being my elderly mother, alas), and a mugging. We fought it the old-fashioned way: called 911 about everything, slogged away at block association and precinct meetings, etc. The rising statistical tide of public safety has lifted our boat here on the rough edge of Flatbush, but we got what we paid for 20 years ago: an affordable fixer-upper in a still-marginal area. Even 20 years ago, for $155K, you kind of expected to get mugged eventually.
Now, what I CANNOT understand is folks paying a million bucks to live in places they’ll get mugged eventually–and that includes, not just Bed-Stuy, but Park Slope, where muggers are smart enough to know “where the money is” (if the local police blotter stories are any indication). If safety were my only value in choosing a place to live, rather than one among many competing values (hey, a perfectly respectable choice), I’d put that wad into a gated suburban community. But to somehow expect a mugger-proof existence in a rough nabe (or any urban nabe) just because you paid soooo much money for your house seems like a sad case of wishful thinking. As a cop once told me pithily, “Hey, this ain’t Westchester.”
He should make better decisions about when he is outside, how aware he is of who & what is around him. No matter where you live there’s risk. So stay, just live more aware.
I’ve been living in Bed-Stuy for 2 years now, and never had any problems. My neighbors are friendly, and even helpful.
The only time I’ve been harrassed on the street was in Fort Greene (!) where a young teenage girl came up behind me out of the blue and hit me on the back for no reason at all…
It’s not always about the hood, sometimes it’s about the timing, and using some common sense – not sure it’s safe to be out at 1 am anywhere in the city, unloading a moving truck.