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.
Why cant we all just get along? All the venom! All the hate! Much energy wated. Enjoy your amazing neighborhood and architecture and ignore the haters.
Kinda sad to think that these people’s kids are probably reading all this smut about their parents and them.
Kids, if you’re reading this, just know that all these people are the same people kissing your ass and smiling all sweet when you see them on the street, and they’d do ANYTHING for their kids to be invited to one of your parties.
I think we should all be impressed that in 2008, people are moving from what most would consider one of the best neighborhoods in the WORLD (west village) and leaving that for Brooklyn.
Sounds like a positive sign, if you ask me.
2:31pm — I agree PS 8 is now desirable. But I also remember the planning that went into that. Brooklyn Heights families had meetings at homes to convince a good number of families with kids to all come at the same time — thus, a tipping point. In 2003 a number of parents started there, and a much larger group started in K in 2004. Each year thereafter more parents chose it.
But what’s interesting is that the “pioneering” families, so to speak, were not the brand newcomers, but families who had been living there for years and whose kids were only now approaching school age. PS 29 had shut its’ doors to those families, so they could either move to a better school zone or commit to the school (private school was not an option most wanted, for a variety of reasons).
Perhaps when Fort Greene parents are shut out of privates and PS 8, they will have no choice but to commit to the public schools. But I doubt it will be the families who paid 2 million for their homes. The question is whether there are enough less wealthy families willing to improve the schools. The families that did so at PS 8 were not the ones living in 2 million dollar properties at the time (although they have since appreciated in value, of course),
“Also the biggest thing wrong with living in “established” neighborhoods is that most of the people living their are like you – idiots with their heads up their asses not inspiring, and no fun to be around.
Good luck and please stay out of our fun “crappy” neighborhoods.”
Yeah, you’re right. You aren’t hateful at all.
2:56 Good for you kid! I think your youth and energy and hopefully progressive-mindedness can be a great contribution not just to yourself but to others who live in your neighborhood. Self-starters like you (and ironically, the fact that you’re accepting help from your parents makes you more independent, in my mind, than all the friends I know selling their souls to corporations they loathe) can invest so much in terms of energy and ideas to neighborhoods which should have strong unified communites. Don’t send your kids to private school!
2:24 I am glad that you told us that you find “crappy” neighborhoods disgusting, as well as, people who have large houses.
I am all about being green and having a light footprint on the world but you are an ass filled with hate and distain for people unlike you.
2:57 SPOT ON!!!!
2:53: Hate to break it to ya but those terrible bankers and lawyers (and doctors)are the reason these “beautiful old Victorian homes” ever came into existence. They built them. They’re just coming home . . . . scary as that image is to all of us.