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.
I agree 100% 7:54. Thats why I said lower income people have a choice – live in a modest apartment (obviously not an ideal choice for a multi-child family) or move somewhere where the commute is longer.
I see nothing wrong with this, in the long run, it helps keep many neighborhoods vibrant. It is no different than the rest of the country. No one is entitled to live in a victorian brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, just like they are not entitled to live in a 10 BR mansion in Malibu. That is just the way it is.
7:28pm once you have kids, you will see that you can’t rent “modest” apartments in better areas that fit more than one kid without having a very high income. At least not in Brooklyn anymore, in a place with a decent public school.
That’s why the cool young families in interesting professions who don’t have trust funds will end up in Inwood or Queens or somewhere else. And those new neighborhoods will be the vibrant place that Brooklyn once was. And all of Brownstone Brooklyn will be like Brooklyn Heights.
No different than anywhere in the world 7:28. Except maybe in communitsa paradises – Wherever they might be.
Been a lot of foul language…
In terms of real estate markets, what do you–those who have bothered to scroll down through the chaff–think about the direction of the prices in FG?
Manhattan-living and looking to move to FG because we like the feel and it is very convenient, a little more affordable and pretty compared to a lot of places in NYC.
People on this thread today ripping this family to shreds didn’t do much service to anyone.
I’d prefer some real positive guidance not a lot of hate spewed toward this nice family.
This website is supposed to be a blog about Brownstone Brooklyn. Frankly, it seems like it is nothing but a forum for ripping to shreds the people who decide to move to Brownstone Brooklyn.
7:28 pm
Higher education, fluency in English, good looks, charm, talent, luck, a unique schtick, connections and a really effective mood stabilizer (be it in the form of pills, yoga, fuck buddy, adult pacifier, whatever) are all essential ingredients for being able to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities this city affords EVERYONE.
7:15 – What you are not getting is New York is a tough town. Yes, there is a clear distinction between the “Upper Curst” and the lower. This is not too dissimilar from the rest of the country, only here it is magnified because everyone lives on top of each other.
Salaries are VERY HIGH here and yes there are many many people making well into the 6 figure mark. Ther is also a need for blue-color and low income labor here as well who are not making these salaries. These people have a choice to live in far away neighborhoods and commute long distances or rent a modest apartment in the “Better” areas.
In the end though, the jobs are here, the culture is here, and this is where people choose to be. Nobody is forced to live here.
So some make due with what they have and demonize those who have more, while others get along just fine and move up taking advantage of the tremendous opportunity this city affords EVERYONE.
OKAY…THIS THREAD WENT WAY IN THE DIRECTION OF so-called SOCIAL CRITIQUE…okay…but there ended up being quite a bit of filler that has nothing to do with anything.
Aside from what houses are going for, is this the NYTimes’ attempt at floating and continuing the “good ol’ days” when people paid 1.7M to 2M just to get on the block OR is Fort Greene still going higher or at least maintaining? My sense is things are still pricey and people are still buying. I don’t know if the credit crunch really impacts people who have sold in Manhattan, for example, are cash heavy and need to slap it into a primary residence before getting taxed on the profit. And, anyway, if you have decent investments, your brokerage firm writes the loan for you anyway so if you want a mortgage you can get it with little if no problem.
Economic stratification has set in enough so that a whole set of people feel fine paying 10 and 20 times what the next step down on the ladder could pay. Just look at the salary spreads out there.
Am I not understanding something here?
I wish this thread hadn’t head off into a debate about public vs private education. We know there is a problem and the arguments on this thread did nothing to inform or change the situation.
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/letters.html?mod=2_0048
“There is an old saying: If you go to a butcher, you get meat. If you get the opinion of the teachers union president about Pell vouchers, you get a call for more money to be spent on public schools. The unions just don’t get it. That huge sucking sound you hear is record property and income taxes being drawn into the public school black hole. Money is not the answer. The answer is to reward good teachers, sack the bad ones, and get teachers out of administrative positions and back into the classroom.
The one thing that no one mentions is parents. Private school parents care about education. They are making incredible sacrifices in order to give their children a better life. That’s not to say there aren’t concerned public school parents but the proof comes when you look at the percentage of parents who attend open school night. My mother, a public school teacher, sent me to private school. I think that says it all. As a parent of children in private school I am sick and tired of paying taxes to subsidize a failed public school system while paying for the best schools.”
Gabby says above that they bought in late 2005 but I think it was mid 2005.