Brooklyn Dominates NY Mag's Best Nabe List
New York Magazine serves up one of its most link-baity and click-generating issues in recent memory with its list of the 50 most livable neighborhoods in the city. There’s plenty of number crunching (the formula weights Safety at 8 percent and Green Space at 5 percent, for example) and a disclaimer that “it is of…
New York Magazine serves up one of its most link-baity and click-generating issues in recent memory with its list of the 50 most livable neighborhoods in the city. There’s plenty of number crunching (the formula weights Safety at 8 percent and Green Space at 5 percent, for example) and a disclaimer that “it is of course impossible to come up with a completely objective answer.” Still, there can be only one Number One, and this year it’s much-maligned Park Slope, land of the stroller moms and annoying co-op members, some detractors would say. “It’s blessed with excellent public schools, low crime, vast stretches of green space, scores of restaurants and bars, a diverse retail sector, and a population of more artists and creatives than even its reputation for comfortable bohemianism might suggest (more, in fact, than younger, trendier Williamsburg),” says MY Mag. “It might not be everyone’s idea of a perfect neighborhood, but statistically speaking (by a hair), there’s nowhere better.” Amazingly, the Lower East Side comes in at Number 2 (really?), followed by Sunnyside, Queens at Number 3 and Cobble Hill & Boerum Hill lumped together at Number 4. Brooklyn continues to dominate the Top Ten with Greenpoint at Number 5, Brooklyn Heights at Number 6 and another combo, Carroll Gardens & Gowanus, at Number 7 and Prospect Heights at Number 9.
The Most Livable Neighborhoods in New York [NY Mag]
Photo by Pete Biggs
““It’s got some Park Slope in it but a little Williamsburg, tooâ€â€”that is, brownstone warmth plus some bite. “You can’t read a magazine or a blog without seeing another bar or restaurant opening on Vanderbilt and Washington Avenues,†says Butler.”
Ugh. Sounds like real estate copy.
DH, problem is nearly all streets in the area will be affected by AY. Traffic patterns will change permanently as major thoroughfares become gridlocked and force traffic onto side streets. Check out Clinton St in Brooklyn Heights at rush hour. Now imagine that for blocks in every direction.
Ah – thought I saw you.
Where to live in 2014:
Prospect Heights
Chosen by: Jonathan Butler, founder of Brownstoner.com.
If Butler were in the market, he says he’d be looking here. “It’s got some Park Slope in it but a little Williamsburg, tooâ€â€”that is, brownstone warmth plus some bite. “You can’t read a magazine or a blog without seeing another bar or restaurant opening on Vanderbilt and Washington Avenues,†says Butler. His tip: stick to streets not directly affected by Atlantic Yards.
“Jeebus, Benson. I know its Monday, but starting out the week obliquely ripping on Pete Hamill’s musings…
Whole lotta grumps around here.”
Not at all, Boerum Hill. Are you familiar with these types of articles by the Hamill brothers? It’s become one of their standard riffs. Take note: in the last such article that Pete Hamill did for NY magazine, there is not a single quote from a current resident of Park Slope. No stopping to chat with random folks on the street and getting their take on things. Rather, the article consists of Pete Hamill’s impressions of the people and sights he sees on his old stomping grounds. His impressions usually consist of categorizing these folks into caricatures.
Pete Hamill was a great reporter and writer, but he is just sucking on fumes when he does such stuff.
please note that while this article is published by New York Magazine, the writer and statistician of the article is Nate Silver who runs fivethirtyeight.com. His site became well known during the 2008 presidential election because it predicted the winning percentages for Obama in most of the states with incredible accuracy. His site is the first place I look to for polls
Nate’s surveys and statistics are always impeccably backed by numbers and facts. If you read the article you would see how they weighted the averages and how they arrived by these ratings. The numbers he uses are incontrovertible and he offers the raw data for people to weigh the averages according to their own requirements.
Also if you read the article you would see that the differences in neighborhoods came down to tenths of a percentage point so the weighing of which factors were more important than others made for a huge movement in rankings.
quote:
I agree that if the LES was #2, then this is just pure bullshit. There can’t be a worse neighborhood to actually live in.
the lower east side was the first neighborhood i moved to when i first moved to nyc. i will admit i did like it, and obviously i was a late comer (lived there from 2001-2005), but the types of people who invade ludlow street like it was some kind of low rent mardi gras on thursday – saturday nights were pretty vile. it was however fun as hell to throw water balloons at them from my roof. it was also fun to bum rush the gaggles of frat boys and sex in the city wannabes with my pitbull.
*rob*
I meant “months.”
“Whole lotta grumps around here.”
Park Slope is full of them.