Closing Bell: On Leaving Park Slope
“I am leaving Park Slope because I am increasingly impatient with people too socially deficient to act like good neighbors. People who won’t spare five seconds to help an old lady. People who can’t figure out their way around without checking their iPhones. People who don’t say hi to the neighbors with whom they share…
“I am leaving Park Slope because I am increasingly impatient with people too socially deficient to act like good neighbors. People who won’t spare five seconds to help an old lady. People who can’t figure out their way around without checking their iPhones. People who don’t say hi to the neighbors with whom they share a stoop. These things are getting noticeably worse.” This is the nut of a post by longtime Park Sloper Daryl Lang who’s leaving the borough and moving to Manhattan. The essay covers everything from the Park Slope Food Co-Op to pretentious parenting and “fidgety and skittish” fathers. His final diagnosis? “Park Slope’s reputation as a welcoming place went viral, and brought in new residents who made it a warped exaggeration of itself.” Agree?
On Leaving Brooklyn [History Eraser Button]
By slopefarm on October 12, 2010 4:16 PM
Author should have moved south to So Slope/Greenwood.
…
The author lived on 21st Street.
If that isn’t South Slope, perhaps you could identify what is SS/GW.
Bye ignorant!!
The energy in park slope is just… weird.
mopar is right. Maybe I’d see his point if he were moving to Minnesota or something, but moving to Manhattan because of a perceived lack of community in PS is totally illogical.
My neighbors of all generations in PS are very nice. Maybe you just reap what you sow, Daryl.
Fascinating as a personal reminiscence although I disagree with much of it and also lived in PS since autumn 2002.
It is annoying when you walk down the street and a child is playing and blocking your way, and the parent expects you to step around. When I was a kid I would have been taken by the hand and told to move for the nice man.
The sunken chested schluby guys I meet are rarely fathers.
Not saying hi to someone who is exiting the stoop next door as you enter your own, yes, that is also annoying and perplexing. I chalk it up to my uncool exterior which works to my advantage in other settings though.
Author should have moved south to So Slope/Greenwood. More of the feel of the PS of 20-30 years ago remains, even with the newbies. Manhattan as the antidote?
I’m sure he’ll meet a lot of nice people in Manhattan. Where does he think these people in PS came from!!!!!??????????
should have put this up in the morning. Would have gotten many many posts.
Primary election day i covered PS 321. While many folks were quite friendly, the mood on the street reminded me of manhattan’s east side, with people ignoring good mornings, going out of their way to avoid the lit. I was shocked.