Can Ditmas Park Save The Middle Class?
Despite tremendous quality-of-life gains, more residents left New York City in 2006 than in 1993. (Brooklyn was the one borough that bucked that trend.) The main reason, says an article from the American Enterprise Institute, is the the rising cost of living for middle-class families. In fact, New York now has the lowest rate of…
Despite tremendous quality-of-life gains, more residents left New York City in 2006 than in 1993. (Brooklyn was the one borough that bucked that trend.) The main reason, says an article from the American Enterprise Institute, is the the rising cost of living for middle-class families. In fact, New York now has the lowest rate of middle-income families of any city; and, except for Los Angeles, it also has the smallest percentage of middle-income neighborhoods. One exception—and a model for the future—is Ditmas Park:
The ‘place’ Ellen and Joe looked for was not just a physical location but something less tangible: a sense of community and a neighborhood to raise their hoped-for children. Although they considered suburban locations, as most families do, ultimately they chose the Ditmas Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, where Joe had grown up. At first, this seemed a risky choice. While Joe was growing up in the 1980s, the neighborhood—a mixture of Victorian homes and modest apartments—had become crime-infested. The old families were moving out, and newer ones were not replacing them. Yet Joe’s Mom still lived there, and they liked the idea of having grandma around for their planned-for family.
Politicians genuflect to the idea of maintaining a middle class, yet their actions suggest otherwise. In a city that has been losing middle-class families for generations, the resurgence of places like Ditmas Park represents a welcome change. In recent years, child-friendly restaurants and shops have started up along once-decayed Cortelyou Road. More important, some local elementary schools have shown marked improvement, with an increase in parental involvement and new facilities. Even in hard economic times, the area has become a beacon to New York families, as well as singles seeking a community where they will put down long-term roots. There’s an attempt in this neighborhood to break down the city feel and to see this more as a kind of a small town, notes Ellen. It may be in the city, but it’s a community unto itself, a place where you can stay and raise your children.
If cities like New York want to nurture their middle-class populations, the article suggests, they will need to shift their priorities away from “subsidizing developers for luxury mega-developments, new museums, or performing arts centers” and instead focus on “those things critical to the middle class such as maintaining relatively low density work areas and shopping streets, new schools, and parks.” In our opinion, at the end of the day, it’s all about the schools.
The Luxury City vs. the Middle Class [The American]
bkny – I’d like to see 250K buy a 2M brownstone! Perhaps DH hasn’t heard the recent news about unstated income mortgages and the subsequent worldwide economic collapse.
Chaka, that’s my point… I didn’t want to believe that you get what you pay for (generally speaking) when it comes to public school education. I thought what we had was equal to anything to be found anywhere else. It wasn’t. And it was in to way the fault of any of the wonderful teachers my children had.
Bxgrl;
Stop putting words in my mouth. You speak of comments that I’ve made before regarding immigrants. Please produce these comments to support your assertion. Otherwise, I would kindly ask you to argue your case on the basis of statements made here, and stop making assertions about me that are not supported by anything I’ve written.
Futhermore, I did not assume anything. The 5 family illegal conversion of which I write happens to be right next to my father’s house. It was an illegal conversion done by an immigrant who bought the place and chopped it up. Furthermore, because it was an illegal conversion done by hack contractors, the building’s electrical system was substandard and started a fire, which spread to my father’s home. My parents, both in their 80’s, had to leave their home for 2 months so that their apartment could be put back in place.
If you think that such an environment is fine for someone in the middle class, well good for you. I and many others don’t, and if you want to state that this makes me the next Mussolini, so be it.
Achiterrorist, I had the complete opposite experience with a student who moved from a suburban area into one of my NYC classes. I guess it depends on where you live in the suburbs. All suburban schools are not created equal either. I would suspect that a student in a northern suburb where the taxes are scary expensive would do better than a student from an area of the suburbs where the taxes were not as scary.
“If you could afford living in Brooklyn and raising a child – that’s fine. But to overextend yourself to a point that making 250K is “middle class” just so you can live in a 2 million dollar brownstone and drag your kid around to brunch on the weekends sounds selfish to me. Having a child is about sacrifice, if you could live in a suburb with better schools, cheaper housing and a commute less then an hour then why do so many people have this “Brownstone Brookyln or bust” attitude?”
Ok dirty hipster, i must assume you do not have children. 250k, does not hardly buy you a 2M brownstone. i live in bedstuy, and bought before the boom and before having children. i had alot more money before the kids came along. i did not pick up and move to be in PS 321 zone. i couldn’t afford to even if i wanted to. all of my friends, including myself, have 2 income households, make between 150k-250k (only a very few at the higher end) we live mainly in bedstuy and all paid 600k or below for our homes. again we are not rolling in the dough! we have mortgages, childcare, cars, living. take 1 vacation a year. we are not going to brunch and living in 2M brownstones – we are surviving.
MM – i get your point but we are talking about middle class, not how poor folks get by, so we should get over it. that can be said about anything on this website. i.e. HOTD, why not put some low income houses? i would think that most people are on this website b/c we have similar values and are in silimar financial situations. not that we want to say ‘poor us’ they are always people who are better or worse off in every situation. i think your comment is irrelevant to this discussion.
benson- because you assumed all of these are illegal immigrants and implied that immigrants are not desireable. You did not say “illegal immigrants” and since you’ve made comments about immigrants before I took it in context. I grew up with an extended family- in a 4 room apartment. my father was the patriarch of the family and if you didn’t have a job or a place to stay, he opened our home. Many immigrants still do the same- and in this day and age the strength of family ties is even more crucial.
If you want to blame anyone- blame the greedy landlord who has no qualms about cutting up a house to squeeze every last dime out of it. Oh wait- you also think property owners should be entitled to do anything they want with their property.
As a recent immigrant (13 years) I must say I can’t abide neighborhoods where people pave over the front yard. Nor where people build a house that fills up the whole lot and squishes out the garden. Ugh.
Benson – apparently if you mention “immigrant” and “not desirable” in the same sentence, regardless of the context, you’re automatically labeled as xenophobic.
I completely agree with what you are saying.
I have to disagree with you Montrose. The majority of the houses in Victorian Flatbush are still owned by middle class families. People who are civil servants and other jobs described by Back40 which would land us squarely in the middle class. We do have wealthier families who’ve purchased homes in the last couple of years above the million dollar mark but block by block they are few. The kids who live in the big houses play with kids who live in both co-op, condo and rental apartments in the small parks, at each others homes and in school. There is probably more interaction now among people from various socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds now than there ever was in 1955. There is an overall friendliness also found in neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy, that give this neighborhood a hometown feel that that transcends the “Our Town” look of the area.
As far as maintainence is concerned, any house can be a beast if you don’t take care of problems as they arise. Unfortunatley for many of our elderly neighbors, these houses or any house can become too much for them to handle especially if they don’t have family and friends to help them out. These were many of the people who made off with a million dollars when they sold their homes to people who could afford to restore them. A win for all concerned.