Newcomers Find Crown Heights Retail Lacking
North Crown Heights may be luring more affluent buyers with its gorgeous—and recently landmarked—rowhouses, but some of the newbie homeowners think the area’s shopping scene leaves a lot to be desired. According to an article in today’s Sun, as more buyers see the neighborhood as an affordable alternative to Prospect Heights, they’re also anxious to…
North Crown Heights may be luring more affluent buyers with its gorgeous—and recently landmarked—rowhouses, but some of the newbie homeowners think the area’s shopping scene leaves a lot to be desired. According to an article in today’s Sun, as more buyers see the neighborhood as an affordable alternative to Prospect Heights, they’re also anxious to see a retail renaissance on thoroughfares like Nostrand. A Wall Street worker who recently closed on an $870,000 Hampton Place home, for example, says he’s ready to see more restaurants in the ‘hood: “If there was something to patronize, I’d willingly spend money there. I’d like to see more amenities. People have money here. Somebody has to be the pioneer and open up something. It’s just a matter of time.” Think he’s right?
Retailers So Far Fail To Follow Homebuyers to North Crown Heights [Sun]
Photo by ultraclay!.
Crime may be up in Brooklyn Heights, but it will never be as bad as Crown Heights. Few areas will.
While I agree in theory with the above poster who stated that real change won’t happen until the crime problem is solved, I predict that change will happen nonetheless. Many of the new, white twenty-somethings around Classon and Franklin seemingly have no qualms about walking around the neighborhood drunk at 3AM. My belief is that they align the criminal element of the area with urban chic.
And before the Crown Heights crime apologists accuse me of being a jealous renter, I own a home in Prospect Heights (which has a higher crime rate than Brooklyn Heights, but at least I can admit that).
You must mean everyone “you” talk to in your small circle 11:44. Its people like you who beleive everything whitepeople tell you. Are you not aware that the Guiliani administration was found guilty of underreporting crime in affluent neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights. Brooklyn Heights has a high share of pedophiles in its midst. I would rather be afraid of walking the streets at night in Crown Heights than to be afraid for my kids in the playground.
As of 2007 of the approximately the approximately 200,000 residents in Crown Heights, 77 percent were of African American or Caribbean decent, 10 percent Hispanic decent 7 percent were Hasidic Jews and the remaining 6 percent were from various other ethnice groups
The events referred to as the Crown Heights Riots were a multi-day disturbance that took place in August 1991.[9]
They were precipitated by an automobile accident on 19 August 1991 at approximately 8:30 pm that occurred near the corner of Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue in which two seven-year-old Guyanese American children, a boy named Gavin Cato and his cousin Angela Cato were struck by a car. Angela Cato suffered a fractured leg but Gavin Cato succumbed to his injuries at Kings County Hospital.
The car involved in the accident was part of a three car motorcade led by an unmarked police car that was accompanying the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson who was returning from his father-in-law’s grave. As the car crossed the intersection, it was hit by another car, causing it to veer out of control, jump the sidewalk and run over the children.
Fueled by the belief that the treatment of the car accident victims was unequal the neighborhood residents squared off against each other. On one side were primarily some members of the local Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Jewish Community and on the other were some members of the local African-American/Caribbean-American community. Stones and other objects were thrown, fires were set and shops were looted.
Yankel Rosenbaum, 29, a visiting scholar from Australia was stabbed and though his wounds were not initially considered life-threatening he passes away several hours later at Kings County Hospital. The hospital later agreed to pay the family $1.25 million and agreed that they had negligently failed to detect Mr. Rosenbaum’s four-inch stab wounds for more than an hour and as a result he bled to death internally
Crown Heights today is a series of interesting paradoxes, from its lovely architecture to its vacant, run-down buildings, from variously hatted and top-coated Lubavitcher communities to vegan rasta Afro-Caribbean restaurants. Rising real estate values and gentrification have also recently become part of this mix.[11]
The lovely brownstones, Medgar Evers College-CUNY, proximity to Park Slope, and great train access mean that some real estate developers are already trying to shift the prices of area housing while ignoring what are still some of the highest crime rates and worst racial tension anywhere in the five boroughs.
Murders, rapes, and other violent crimes dipped significantly in the mid-90s, and continue to fall.
NYC.GOV statistics for 2007 reveal that the 77th precinct, which includes a significant part of Crown Heights, has experienced a year-to-date decline of 40% in the number of murders (a total of 9, down from 15), and of 20% in the number of rapes (12, down from 15). However, felonious assaults and burglaries have increased significantly (16.8 and 24.8%, respectively)[
no crime in Brooklyn Heights is different the people there murder and steal from home and work…
christies is still on flatbush surrounded by alot of white people.
11:35…Why do you think it appropriate to discuss crime in Brooklyn Heights (and even post a link about it), but not in Crown Heights?
I’m confused.
It makes no sense since everyone knows Crown Heights is far more crime ridden.
11:22 – that worked out great for Seinfeld and Babu.
Thanks for that link, 11:35. I’m going to quit carrying my birthday cash and squash racket around.