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.
2:42 there were far more remarks defending the family, and a few negative ones. And, most of the negative ones were barely negative, just comments on being able to afford a 1.8 million dollar house, and private school for 3 kids as well.
You, however, are just as judgemental about brownstoners. Shame on you. In fact, why are you even bothering with us poor jealous reverse elitists at all?
2:42 love that word “jealousness” — it’s so much more sophisticated than the comically provincial (and correct) “Jealosy”. Or is that “jealosity”? We don’t get learned so well over here in the boonies.
I’m suprised that nobody is nostalgic for the days when you could actually buy a brownstone on S. Portland for 1.8. Seems like the price has gone up by a million in two years.
Buy with your family, if you can (I bought with siblings). You can split buildings with another buyer too, doesn’t have to be a friend, just a business partner (probably better that way). Most of these brownstones are too huge for one family anyway– they were built with servants in mind for godsake.
And like a lot of people been saying, be a pioneer. Be enterprising. Don’t just read the times looking for answers. These people took their own path to get here, whatver that path was. Find yours. You’ll enjoy it more that way too.
AND YES, TRY TO SEND YOUR KIDS TO PUBLIC SCHOOL. Or at least start after school programs for kids from the community to be a part of.
My biggest problem with Fort Greene is that there’s such a denial of the “other side” of the park, the projects. Everyone’s just praying for them to disappear, for ratner to buy them and ship all those “sketchy” people out. Where are the after school events in the park that would enhance the quality of life for the kids there? Where’s the Fort Greene Park Conservancy and the non profit groups everyone’s working for when you can organize really tremendous events and activities for kids?
Maybe I should start something. I’m 26 but hell it’s never too early to start thinking about my own kids’ future in the ‘hood, and so far, it looks kinda . . . . lame.
Shut it with the Queens crap.
This is a blog called BROWNSTONER. Most people here like living in beautiful old Victorian homes.
If I wanted a piece of crap clad in aluminum siding, I’d move to the suburbs.
NOT Queens.
As someone who lives and owns a townhouse in Manhattan, I find this banter between you self-entitled “brownstoners” to be comical.
I also find many of the things said about the family in the article to be appaling. All they did was move to a new neighborhood to lead a better, more comfortable life. To judge them shows the underlying jealousness and reverse elitism that Brooklyn residents have towards Manhattanites.
Shame on you.
“2:24 – then you are destined to be a renter your whole life.”
There ARE alternatives, you realize.
I already own, but I’d much rather own a 2 bedroom in Park Slope than a whole house in a crappy neighborhood.
1:37 is right. Queens is where it’s at for the future. So much uncelebrated territory, ripe to be turned. You will all pooh-pooh Queens, but that’s the same reaction that early pioneers in Brooklyn got. (When I first moved to Brooklyn in 2001 people in Manhattan thought I had lost my mind.)
Brownstone Brooklyn, on the other hand, is over. It’s now attracting Manhattan people who can throw $2mn at former crack houses. It’s no longer a place to build the future. And I agree, areas like Bed-Stuy and CH are not the answer.
It’s Queens.
2:30 did proper grammar and being a spelling nazi make you a multi-millionaire?
Didnt think so.