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.
This thread wins the award for most despressing ever on Brownstoner.
I’m SHOCKED at how provincial most of you are.
While watching these primaries, I’m always amazed at how many people in this country have voted for Fuckabee, but I’m now seeing firsthand that many of you here in our “ultra blue” NYC are one step away from a life in Kansas, wishing everyone not Irish or German would go back to where they came from.
Really dissapointing to know I live amongst so many bigoted, closed minded, jealous, angry and hateful people.
Wrong again 12:30, I was born and raised in Ft. Greene. purchased my first home there. Sold it for a “lot of paper” as you put it. Purchased 2 properties in Crown Hts which accounts for double the equity I had in Ft. Greene. You are not talking to a person who is not paying attention to the trends.
12:33
Then perhaps it would have been a better choice for you to live in Manhattan.
“I would never send my kids to a poor school in order to “invest” in the neighborhood.
I will invest in my kids, thank you.”
You disgust me.
The median income of Ft. Greene is around 40K a year.
How is it, then 12:27 that everyone owns a 2 million dollar brownstone as you say? You really don’t think there is a middle class in Ft. Greene or Park Slope??
You are a moron, then.
There are WAY more rentals and co-ops then there are brownstones.
You all forget that only 1/3 of NYC even OWN SOMETHING IN THE FIRST PLACE!!
Yet you are so ignorant that because you don’t choose to see certain things, they don’t exist.
MOST people in Brooklyn are middle class. Those that buy brownstones are a miniscule portion of the population.
I would never send my kids to a poor school in order to “invest” in the neighborhood.
I will invest in my kids, thank you.
We are facing a terrible crisis of livability in NYC. Most people just do not make the kind of money that is needed to buy property and raise a family here.
It’s great for the bigshot lawyers and bankers but for everybody else it is unaffordable. The inevitable result of this will be an exodus of normal, middle-income people. I hope the bankers can teach their own children and fix their own cars because there will be no one left behind except the undocumented workers and the millionaires.
12:27:
YOU are sadly mistaken if you don’t realize the huge numbers of middle class people who live in Ft. Greene who happen to have a lot of “paper” wealth in their home.
You clearly don’t know very much about Ft. Greene. The people who are paying 2 million dollars for a brownstone are about 10% of the population.
Try to open your mind a little bit and see past your own dellusions.
12:18 you are dead wrong. The people who got in cheap in Ft. Greene purchased before 1997. Most flipped their property and have gone fishing. People who are purchasing now in Ft. Greene are not middle-class,and the pricing has probably reached it’s peak. Other areas of brooklyn continue to have growth potential and offers an alternative to the 1.8 to 3mil. price range. Brooklyn is busting at the seams and if you think scare tactics is gonna keep certain areas blighted you are sadly mistaken.