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.
Good 11:54, maybe than the gentrification will stop and people who have weathered the storm of the crack years and deserve to claim that community will have a chance to. Instead of losing it to a very nice family who has 1.8mil. to spend on a house because they are a nusance to their neighbors below them.
11:52, you sound very contradictory. Bed Stuy and Crown Hts are AMAZING because unlike Ft. Greene you can still get in while the gettin is good. The people who purchased for the long run will see their equity go through the roof around 2014. All the time enjoying the quiet from the AY project and traffic that will come with it. Ft. Greene had one of the highest murder rates in the city just a short time ago. How soon we forget.
VOTE OBAMA FOR CHANGE??????
Let’s see, he will raise taxes on the “rich” (that means those making over $200,000), increase the dividend tax rate from 15% to 40%, increase the capital gains tax from 15% to who knows what, and after he finishes doing that, he’ll increase taxes on energy, water and air.
And who will be hurt the most by this? The people buying in brownstone Brooklyn.
my husband and i were talking about this piece yesterday and how it made our stomachs turn, to put it mildly. we’ve lived on that block for more than a few years it has always been great, even in the crack years. (yes, it’s true, folks) sorry to say, but you didn’t “discover” it. the “we’re so casual, and laid back”, but are dying to get into st. ann’s thing is exactly what’s wrong with fort greene these days-it’s rich, bohemian wannabees playing house, claiming to have “found” brooklyn.
They may very well have bought their West Village apartment for 200K 15 years ago.
Don’t blame them for getting in while the gettin was good.
All of you that claim Bed Stuy and Crown Heights are AMAZING, think about the prices for the neighborhoods and realize that middle class people are no longer moving into those neighborhoods. It’s rich and it’s poor for the most part.
I think they seem like ideal neighbors. They aren’t claiming to be anything. They are just living their lives.
It would be interesting for the NYTimes to do an expose on how many “successful” artists, writers, filmmakers, etc. living in Manhattan and Brooklyn are actually the beneficiaries of trust funds. There’s nothing like a trust fund to allow you to pursue your dream of making art without worrying about commerce. But that’s been the case for 20 years or perhaps forever.
However, even 10 years ago, the non-trust fund artists could actually find nice livable homes in Brooklyn that were easily affordable. Not so any longer, which is too bad.
PS — I also thought the family in the article seemed very nice, and would love to have them as neighbors.
Mummified bodies, captured slaves, and second class citizens don’t count against the dominating whiteman. No fair 11:41.
Gee. Like what we need are yet another self-hating white dude and a banana who can’t wait to dye her skin white. The hood is going downhill, nonstop.
I thought this was a lovely story and this family seemed like nice folks whom I am happy to have as neighbors. Why is it our business where they got their money? So much class anxiety on this board…