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.
“It’s places like this that keep the country in check. If we did not have these places, the United States could falter back to a majority Christian Conservative country.”
In case you haven’t noticed, the USA is already a majority Christian conservative country. But you would have to travel to other states and speak with residents beyond NYC to know that. Paying attention to who the country has chosen the past two presidential elections might also be eye-opening for you.
Park Slope may vote Democratic, but it is not liberal. Try proposing that all PS 321 students be bussed to PS 284 in Brownsville in order to achieve economic and racial parity and see how quickly Park Slope residents behave like the conservative small-town people they love to decry.
I don’t think their ethnicity matters, 2:14, just their painful eco-consciousness.
“Park Slope is kind of boring”
A neighborhood can’t be boring.
People can be.
And btw Heather, if you didn’t know Park SLOPE had a hill before you went there, you are a moron.
I think you are regardless of that fact, but I digress.
Lest Nokilissa begins to fear she overestimated the number of posts in this thread, along comes Heather to save the day!
the puero ricans, irish, italians or polish?
Park Slope has an annoying hill in the middle of it. During my real estate search while seven months pregnant, I slogged up it in 95 degree weather.
And vowed to never ever move there.
The other thing is — dare I say — Park Slope is kind of boring. There are lots of cute shops, but very few practical or unique ones. There are pretty houses, and pretty blocks and a pretty park, but again, there’s an annoying hill and long, long stretches of residential areas with not that many commercial options. Aside from muffins, pizza and bagels, there’s nothing to eat. The sidewalks are crowded. There’s a big hill.
Also, the natives scare me.
Thanks Nokilissa, I just thought I would try to lighten up the mood a bit. Look at the bright side; had you spilled Mint Julep all over the carpet, you would have had one heck of a fun discussion on stain removals in the Forum (I mean the one here vs. Penthouse Forum – although I’m sure the topic’s come up there too).
Anyway, a Triple Crown would sure be uplifting, especially after Eight Belles went down. It made me too once again question the sport. But I agree – let’s hope for the best at the Belmont and also hope for no more catastrophies.
So as to at least reference the topic, I thought the article didn’t represent Park Slope accurately and was a sad fluff piece. As other posters have commented re the NY Times, I too find myself skimming over it faster and faster every weekend. Soon I’ll just do the Sunday crossword and shoot the rest into the recycle bin!
Biff! What a delight. That was a memory poker.
And Big Brown’s win was almost more than I could bear! I think I actually spilled Mint Julep all over the carpet, or at least slooshed it because I was jumping up and down in pure glee.
He was like a freakin’ rocket, it was as though he had turbo charges that blasted off as he rounded that last corner… the blimp view was unbelievable.
On to the Triple Crown! Let’s just pray nothing goes further wrong. No horses are hurt or killed, because if that happens again, I’m not sure I can continue to love it. But we’re going to Churchill Downs this weekend – I’ll not think of it yet.
It’s, what, a 3-hour tricycle ride from Clinton Hill to the TOYS”R”US store at 1514 Broadway?