From the West Village to Fort Greene, With Few Regrets
This weekend’s real estate section in the Times has a story that’s likely to resonate with many ex-Manhattanites who’ve moved to Brooklyn and find the living across the East River a whole lot easier. The article is about Hali Lee and Peter von Ziegesar, a couple with three kids who uprooted from the West Village,…
This weekend’s real estate section in the Times has a story that’s likely to resonate with many ex-Manhattanites who’ve moved to Brooklyn and find the living across the East River a whole lot easier. The article is about Hali Lee and Peter von Ziegesar, a couple with three kids who uprooted from the West Village, where they’d lived for 15 years, to Fort Greene. The pair bought a house (a former crack den, actually) on South Portland Avenue in late ’05 and say that while they miss a few things about the city (chief among them their old proximity to the Village Community School on West 10th Street, which their kids still attend), Brooklyn has presented a number of quality-of-life advantages. The perks, according to Ms. Lee, include an environment that doesn’t feel like a high-end mall, as the Village did; a space where their brood’s noise doesn’t disturb the neighbors; their new borough’s down-to-earth population (There are mixed-race couples, and black people here who aren’t nannies); and the fact that their kids can now go play on the sidewalk and in the backyard.
In a House, You Can Make All the Noise You Want [NY Times]
Photo by lunalaguna.
“You cant generalize about either and if you do your wrong.”
No, actually YOU’RE wrong.
Guess your grammar lessons were the private school years???
I agree with you 3:18.
Wholeheartedly.
Thanks for that. I hope some of the parents out there are listening too. I think you bring some very insightful information to this discussion.
I’ve found the exact same in my life as well. My parents, who both went to private school sent us to public, because they said they’d never put us through what they went through in finding out about life as you mention.
Good for you.
You should love the trees because apparently you own them bozo.
I went to private school for a little and I went to public school for a little. You cant generalize about either and if you do your wrong. No different than generalizing about anything else in the world. Works for some, does not for others… just like Brooklyn.
I hope their kids are reading this otherwise that private school education ain’t worth a dime.
I hope you have kids soon 3:18, because we need more people like you in this town. I am genuinely touched by your post, which is pretty rare on brownstoner.
Lotta bozos here today. Cheers!
ps – I’m a self made gazillionaire who bought everything ever in CASH and my trophy wife and kids love the trees here in Brooklyn.
3:07pm I challenge you to cite the posts that you believe have “smut” about this family. Most are barely negative. “Kids, someone accused your family of having a trust fund!” Oh yes, what an awful thing to say about them.
I will match every negative post you cite with one saying how nice the family sounds.
Please back up your contention with evidence.
The whole public vs private school debate is fascinating. Here’s my idealistic take.
My kids (when and if they arrive to the world ;)) are going to public school, even though I went to private my whole life (immigrant parents, scholarships, you know the drill — and it was a drill, believe me).
I’m sending them to public school because nothing in private school could have prepared me for college, life, decision making; I was sheltered, pampered, and thought I had every choice in the world, and this happened to be overwhelming, debilitating and stifling to me. I hated it, hated myself, and it took me a while to shake that guilt shit and put my mind to the task of making myself happy, and others around me happy. I think public school will at least give my kids a very clear idea of what life is like outside of the shelter of our home, and hopefully will make them sensitive to the struggle of people around them; lack of facilities and resources, pressures on students from their home life, as well as on teachers. It will also force them to face their own issues about where they come from — me, my background — and force them to make decisions about how they feel.
This is not some overarching ethic I want to impose on my kids like a scientist. I want to give them this gift, from what I have learned of life, the way my parents gave me the only gift they knew — a “perfect” eduction — from what they knew of life.