Beating a Busted Bugaboo?
Maybe there’s more to the Park Slope stroller mafia debate than points about how it shows how white people are jealous of other white people or assertions that negative stereotypes come from I-don’t-wanna-grow-up hipsters. Maybe, as Lynn Harris posits in yesterday’s Style section, Slope bashing is an elegy for a former New York: Brooklyn was…
Maybe there’s more to the Park Slope stroller mafia debate than points about how it shows how white people are jealous of other white people or assertions that negative stereotypes come from I-don’t-wanna-grow-up hipsters. Maybe, as Lynn Harris posits in yesterday’s Style section, Slope bashing is an elegy for a former New York:
Brooklyn was supposed to be Manhattan’s little burnout brother. When I arrived in New York, Brooklyn was the place you could reliably feel superior to, if you thought about it at all. New Yorkers don’t hate the Upper East Side in the same way because that’s old money, old news. But Brooklyn? There’s the feeling that yuppies in Park Slope are washing away Brooklyn’s grittiness and making it more like Manhattan, said Jose Sanchez, chairman of urban studies at Long Island University, Brooklyn. Brooklyn was supposed to be different. Park Slope, to some, now represents everything that Brooklyn was not supposed to be. That’s why our feelings about Park Slope are linked to our feelings about our entire city: our overpriced, chain-store city run by bankers, socialites and, it seems, mommies. The artists are fleeing and your friends, it seems, have become Park Slope pod people. (And they’re coming for you, too.) It’s starting to feel as if there’s nowhere left to hide. And that if we lose Brooklyn, we lose everything. Though actually, if you could keep hating Park Slope, that would be great. Maybe if it really falls out of favor, I’ll be able to afford to stay.
But maybe all press is good press.
Park Slope: Where Is the Love? [NY Times]
Photo by redxdress.
Anyone who says that he/she lives in New York because of the “edge” is an ABSOLUTE TOOL!!!!!
Seriously folks. What the hell is edge?
Can someone please tell me where the edge is in Disneyland…I mean Manhattan?!
Heather,
lol re: bagel quality. 🙂
Biff,
You may have met your match in sarcasm.
Heather,
Where do you live? How would you answer Biff’s questions applied to your own neighborhood?
I never said the bagels were good, just that there are lots of them.
Do people really think there are good bagels in park slope?
I mean, I’ve lived there for 6 months (after Tischman Speyer gave me a 35% rent increase in Mahattan), and the only good bagels I found were at Bergen Bagels, which is across flatbush so I’m calling it Prospect Heights.
All in all, I don’t get all the fuss. It’s a nice place, but a little pricey considering how much the commute sucks.
ok, but look at the UES, 20 times more boring than PS.
3:44 you’re being self-righteous again.
“to whom I have already donated $$”… talk about self-righteous.” It is not self-righteous, it is being aware of life outside B’stone Brooklyn.
Biff I’d be delighted to answer your questions!
1) Is Park Slope kind of boring?
Yes, it is kind of boring.
2) Are there many commercial options or things to eat aside from muffins, pizza and bagels?
To be fair, I believe there is a also a Tibetan store and some vegan sandwich place. Possibly more than one vegan sandwich place. And a few opticians and toy stores.
3) Are the sidewalks crowded?
Okay, you got me. Only on the main avenue blocks, where apparently the mix of muffins, pizza, bagels, opticians and vegan sandwich places have become a huge tourist draw.
4) Are the natives scary, eco-conscious and sheep-like?
Extremely. Best shred those Fresh Direct boxes or your neighbors might give you a lecture.
5) Is there a big, annoying hill?
Yes, yes there is!! And it runs through the middle of the entire neighborhood!