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.
10:31 — trust fund, baby!
When I read this I crossed my fingers and hoped, for these people’s sake, that brownstoner wouldn’t put the story up to be dissected. There’s so many spiteful people on brownstoner and I could just imagine the shit these newbies would get for literally just existing. They happen to sound like the kinds of people — funny, relaxed, honest — who are cool neighbors. They’re not pontificating about their roots in brooklyn or pretending they’re so close to their community. They just said: we wanted room and a place to yell and scream, and since we come from the West Village, that area better be pretty nice to look at cause that’s what we’re used to.
People in Brooklyn are so friggin uptight about being the very thing they are: small-minded provincials. Don’t be so paranoid, no one wants to take your pride away by showing you up with their private-school kids and their trust funds. IT’s NEW YORK CITY, this place is chock full of well-to-do people. Get over it. Live your own life.
They inhereted a pile of money, 10:34. And the daddy grew up in New Canaan, CT (the WASPiest place on earth) so he’s still trying to cover his tracks with this salt-of-the-earth schtick.
10:12=10:16 which equals the height of stupidity.
10:23. Forte (and other) downtown condo developers underwriting puff pieces on ‘funky-cool’ Ft Greene. Nothing more likely to get under the skin of the true neighborhood people.
the most telling part of all–they are so bummed to get on the st ann’s waitlist year after year! let’s see, 3 kids, $27,000 each per year, yep, these guys have over $80k to spend on schooling, without a mention of the dire straits the FG/CH public schools are in. when you’ve got extra dough like that, i guess it doesn’t matter.
10:31 — Amen!
I read that story and thought, “where did these two get all this money?”
From3 floors in West Village to Ft Greene brownstone (plus renovation costs) plus 3 kids in fancy Village school. She’s in non-profit, he’s that old chestnut “freelance writer/filmmaker”. Is it just me or was there a major piece of the story missing here? The part of the story that is missing from MY life!
Not sure what your point is, 10:23. Houses in PS and CG are more expensive than FG and CH precisely because the public schools are better.
I think all of this recent press for Fort Greene must have something to do with the Forte getting ready for occupancy, perhaps in tandem with 1 hanson — the Time Out pullout was explicitly financed by the Forte, so one has to be a little critical of all these recent articles.