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]
Yes, BS is large and folks need to specify which area they are talking about.
I can say that this list
“- Rats
– Graffiti
– Trash blowing up the street
– Plastic bags stuck in trees
– Dice games on the sidewalk
– Angry stares from groups of ‘punks’
– People drinking and getting roudy on
front stoops
-Drug dealing”
applies to almost every nabe in browntone Brooklyn: Boerum Hill/Carroll Gardens (Wycoff, Gowanus), Dumbo/Vinegar Hill (Farragut), Fort Greene (Ingersoll, Whitman), Red Hook, (Red Hook), and Clinton Hill (Lafayette).
Not because of the intact and well kept brownstone blocks but the fact the crappiness is quite apparent in every public housing project in these neighborhoods. Of course I would never make such a stupid statement. It would be like saying Fort Greene is “crappy” because the Whitman and Ingersoll houses are “crappy”. Or Carroll Gardens and Beorum Hill are “horrible” because the Wycoff, Gowanus and Red Hook houses are “horrible”. You get it? You can’t make sweeping generalization about an entire community, especially one as large a Bed-Stuy, without breaking down the various components that make up this neighborhood, otherwise it is pure misrepresentation.
(f) For the most part, when I dine out it’s during the week and it’s typically at five star restaurants in Manhattan, not Brooklyn.
(g) On weekends, if I want to explore something local, every good Brooklyn restaurant is within a 20 minute drive if not much less (FG, CH, PS, CG and WB). I don’t hang out at bars in Brooklyn – ever.
(h) I care very little about living down the street from hip restaurants, cafes or bars. Means absolutely nothing to me.
(i) Food Shopping? I do Fresh Direct or simply jump in my car and drive to Fairway and Costco. Not an inconvenience at all, especially considering that most in brownstone Brooklyn typically drive to these stores too. Who walks to the supermarket anyway?
your comments could not have proved my point anymore if you tried. you drive everywhere (uhhh…horrible) and you don’t seem to give two sh*ts about brooklyn, it’s bars, restaurants or really anything about it. you like your house. THAT’S IT! you clearly don’t give a rats ass about how your neighborhood performs in other areas, because you get in your car and leave it to do just about EVERYTHING!
and you, my friend are exactly the person i was referring to about how you have DONE NOTHING to improve the conditions in bed stuy but simply rape the neighborhood for your own personal financial goals.
your post made me absolutely disgusted at what a cocky, egotistical, and ignorant human being you truly are.
5 star restaurants only in manhattan!!??
LOLOLOL.
for someone who claims to be a churchgoer, you sure do seem to be obsessed with material things…shamelessly talking about private schools, wine cellars, 5 star restaurants, etc.
is THAT was god teaches you to strive for??
you make me sick.
Oh David, please come to Stuyvesant Heights and show me where you see this? You a pathetic liar. Marcy projects, perhaps yes. Stuy Heights? Never. You won’t find any of that crap you just mentioned on your list. You must be drunk at work right now!
On the other hand, I’ll tell you what you will find:
1. Tree lined streets.
2. Beautiful and well kept homes.
3. Front yards and windows stacked window boxes, planters and pots of beautiful floral arrangements.
4. A lit lamppost in every front yard.
5. Sidewalks aligned with flower baskets.
6. A community of long time residents who look out for one another.
Have you ever gone on the Stuy Height House tour? Have you ever walked along the beautiful streets of Stuyvesant, Chauncey, Bainbridge, Decatur and Macdonough? I’ve lived in this community for years and NOT ONCE have I ever seen this crap that you are aluding to on my block or anywhere else in my immediate area.
“- Rats
– Graffiti
– Trash blowing up the street
– Plastic bags stuck in trees
– Dice games on the sidewalk
– Angry stares from groups of ‘punks’
– People drinking and getting roudy on
front stoops
-Drug dealing”
Like the above poster stated correctly: “People have been making a lot of unfounded generalizations about a very large neighborhood.” What’s your frame of reference? “New Jack City”?
David, I always took you for one of the brighter and more reasonable commentators on this board. However, to make such a gross generalization and misstatement of the truth is utterly disgusting. Why would you paint an entire community with such broad and uneven strokes. You my friend are pathetic.
Brower Park,
Perhaps your comment would make more sense if you specified that you were talking about Stuyvesant Heights.
I spent a year working at the corner of DeKalb and Nostrand (near the “crappy” part of bed-stuy, which YOU obviously never visit), and I can assure you that the feeling in the air is not “peace and harmony”. In fact, I believe there was a shooting near there just last week. I’ve seen fights, creepy stalkers, angry kids, arrests, gang graffitti, hit-and-runs, and all kinds of hate being spewed.
It would be fantastic if the neighborhood was ALL lovely old brownstones with tons of history and friendly neighbors and local businesses. But SOME of the nabe is drugstores behind bulletproof glass, no nice supermarkets, and certainly no neighborly love.
It’s like people are talking about two bed-stuys without even realizing that they are talking about areas that are blocks apart and whose inhabitants rarely leave their own little zone. Yes, Bed-stuy is nice. And yes, bed-stuy is a ghetto. It’s all in where you are.
woo hoo! 200!
sorry, got swept up in the excitement.
Wow, David, you’re right. South Slope, oops I mean Bed-Stuy, really has it bad.
PS- You sound pretty angry, and it doesn’t seem to have too much to do with the discussion at hand….
David at 4:30, I’m confused. Are you talking about Bed-Stuy or Park Slope? Of all the items you mention, only 2 of them apply to my Bed-Stuy block: the trash blowing up the street and the plastic bags in trees. I’ll give you that. The remainder are simply not in evidence. People have been making a lot of unfounded generalizations about a very large neighborhood.
“it doesn’t make sense to me how people spend so much money to live in such a crappy neighborhood.”
Anon 12:43PM:
I’m the poster who spent $1.4M to live in Bed-Stuy. A couple of things you should know:
(a) I love my house.
(b) I love my neighbors
(c) I love Bed-Stuy
(d) I’m not afraid of black people
(e) Having spent the better part of the last 20 years living in PS, FG and CH, I’m fully away of the dangers of urban life and street crime. The threat doesn’t bother me (I don’t even think about it one bit). I feel totally safe and secure – everywhere.
(f) For the most part, when I dine out it’s during the week and it’s typically at five star restaurants in Manhattan, not Brooklyn.
(g) On weekends, if I want to explore something local, every good Brooklyn restaurant is within a 20 minute drive if not much less (FG, CH, PS, CG and WB). I don’t hang out at bars in Brooklyn – ever.
(h) I care very little about living down the street from hip restaurants, cafes or bars. Means absolutely nothing to me.
(i) Food Shopping? I do Fresh Direct or simply jump in my car and drive to Fairway and Costco. Not an inconvenience at all, especially considering that most in brownstone Brooklyn typically drive to these stores too. Who walks to the supermarket anyway?
(j) I have a triple parlor with a 20x 20 ft kitchen that’s decked out to the max. My wife and I can usually be found at home cooking and drinking fine wine on most evenings. Have kitchen? Use it.
(k) For the most part, everything I love and want is right here in my home (fitness room, wine cellar, rec room, library, media room) and when I want more, I get dressed up and drive for a night out. I did the same when I lived in PS, FG and CH and I’m doing the same in BS. No difference.
(l) I paid cash for my house so I couldn’t care less about the ups and downs of the real estate market. I love this house so much, I will always keep it in the family and will eventually past it down to my children.
(m) Schools: Everyone in my family has gone private,.e.g., parents, wife, siblings and children. 321? Never.
(n) Lastly, “Mr. So Concerned About Other People’s Lives”. I have a great wife, awesome kids, a great career, successful investment portfolio, attend a wonderful church and live in a truly fantastic community. I got my life together. Very together. I hope the same is true for you.
Okay – Ill tell you why the neighborhood isnt all that great – not b/c I live in Bed-Stuy but b/c I live in Park Slope – except the lower slope – which while far more ‘genteel’ then most parts of Bed-Stuy suffers from some of the same crappiness.
In no particular order:
Rats
Graffiti
Trash blowing up the street
Plastic bags stuck in trees
Dice games on the sidewalk
Angry stares from groups of ‘punks’
People drinking and getting roudy on front stoops
Drug dealing
Too many armed robberies within 2 blocks of my home
Cars with (crappy) music blaring all night
And all the above leads to a general feeling of unsafe.
Now before someone comes up with some dumb comment about toughening up etc…. – I can handle myself fine and really am not worried for myself but I have a wife and kid and frankly while I take comfort in the (park slope) crime statistics there is a part of me that is upset that they are expossed to some of this crap and if God forbid anything happened to either of them – I’d never forgive myself. Yes it is paternalistic…
So take all the above add terrible schools, much more violent crime and subtract good shopping and great restaurants and pretty much you have Bed Stuy and the reason why many cant see spending 800k+ to live there despite the beautiful architecture.