Post: High Crime Near High Priced Housing in Bed Stuy, Bushwick
We debated whether to ignore or call out The Post’s story on crime in Bed Stuy and Bushwick, which reads like something written by an Internet troll circa 2008. It even has the requisite gentrifier who says “More people like me are moving in and changing the neighborhood. So that’s comforting.” Newsflash: Violent crime is less than half…
We debated whether to ignore or call out The Post’s story on crime in Bed Stuy and Bushwick, which reads like something written by an Internet troll circa 2008. It even has the requisite gentrifier who says “More people like me are moving in and changing the neighborhood. So that’s comforting.” Newsflash: Violent crime is less than half what it was in the early ’90s, thanks to the efforts of people who have been living here all along, including community boards and Neighborhood Watch groups.
Bed Stuy does have a problem with young black men shooting each other, and it’s horrifying and needs to stop — as people in the community recognize all too well. That’s entirely different from saying white gentrifiers will be preyed on by black bogeymen, which is the implication of the story — but not supported by facts.
“There has also been an uptick in burglaries and muggings targeting the gentrifiers who move in,” said the story, but it did not give any evidence to support that. Crime is down across the board. In the 81st Precinct, for example, which covers part of Bed Stuy, violent crime to date this year is down in every category, including burglary and felonious assault, except rape.
We hope violent crime will continue to decrease, including rape, for the sake of everyone who lives here, not just the newcomers.
Ok, just had to chime in and share a very recent experience I had while pursuing the streets in east bed stuy at around 2pm. I was walking the neighborhood trying to get a feel for the area and while on Bainbridge near Howard (the “less expensive” part of bed stuy) I saw cops checking out a brownstone. When they started to walk back to their police car (mind you they were walking slowly to the car so I did not perceive danger), I asked them if everything was ok. They told me that they were just patrolling the neighborhood. Then I asked them about the crime in the area because who better to ask the the people on the daily beat? They went into a long discourse about how incredibly dangerous the area still is. I mentioned all the talk about crime going down and they said there are many crimes that go unpublished/unreported for various reasons. They said they patrol the area everyday and would never move their families here given the excessive crime that continues to happen on a daily basis. They started to tell me about various incidents just in the past few days – shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. They told me that the new people in the neighborhood are often targeted – these newcomers think it is safe and look out of place so are easy targets. They described exactly how it happens (for example, it is common at night to get jumped coming out of the subway then dragged to a vacant building and robbed, beaten and /or raped. They told me this happens often near the subway stations exits near the projects) AND then they told me about how there are often shootings from rooftops and how easily criminals enter these brownstones from the roof. That was all their words – nothing coached! Then I asked them about the rest of bed stuy and they said while things have improved there is still plenty of criminal activity on a daily basis. I asked them about the new stores on Ralph and Howard and they said many of those new ones have been robbed and will close. They said it is a revolving door.
On another recent occasion (this was before the above meeting with the police on Bainbridge) I was on Putnam further west and I saw police chasing after a guy,. A third police woman standing outside the building told me that a man had entered the brownstone from the rooftop and had attached someone inside. The brownstone next door to this property was currently on the market for $1.35M.
These police had absolutely no incentive to lie but brokers and developers do.
When is everyone going to start to learn that most of these posters here that say it is “safe” have financial gain? These are the brokers talking – hyping up the market to the hilt so you buy – “don’t miss out” is their message, “things are just going to go up so get in now”.
Buyer beware – is your safety work the risk for a “deal”?
Thank you so much for your excellent coments on that dreadful NY Post hatchet job. I was really livid when I read the piece over lunch yesterday.
One of the article’s most bizarre features is that while it lumps Bushwick into the mix, not one criminal incident – not one! – described in it occurred in Bushwick – or was located even close to its border. It really makes you wonder about the competence of the person who created this vile piece. If we told him to take the L train to get to Coney Island, he probably would take it!
Man! That Post article is such a hack job!! “What? Bushwick and Bed-Stuy real estate values are up the most in 2014? Quick! Let’s write a hit piece!” Lol!
It’s quite obvious that buyers are increasingly frustrated (and rightfully so) with the escalating and overheated Brooklyn real estate market and apparently some are attempting to douse those flames by highlighting negative crime states which largely impact areas outside of the brownstone belt (albeit those stats are in steep decline over the past 10 years).
With that said, good luck with that strategy! Lol! The cat is already out of the bag and she’s not going back in! Why? The Internet has leveled out the playing field and it’s not possible to hide architectural significant historic neighborhoods through redlining, racial segregation, broker discrimination or by stoking fears of high crime and poverty anymore. Buyers are not stupid. This is NYC. There will always be issues of crime and poverty in Brooklyn, in particular in those nabes with nearby housing projects. But guess what? Housing projects are everywhere throughout Brownstone Brooklyn!
Boreum Hill & Carroll Gardens (Gowanus/Wykoff)
Bushwick (Bushwick/Williamsburg)
Dumbo (Farragut)
Clinton Hill (Lafayette)
Fort Greene (Ingersoll/Whitman)
Crown Heights (Albany)
East Willy/Bed-Stuy(Sumner/Tompkins)
PLG (Fenimore)
Stuy Heights (Brevoort)
Williamsburg (Berry St/Williamsburg)
Despite this fact and perceived shortcoming, real estate prices in these nabes have increased 300%-1000% over the past 20 years. The Internet changed everything. Today’s Brooklyn buyer wants to live, for the most part, in beautiful, tree-lined, historic neighborhoods and they couldn’t care less about the present day demographics, poor social/economics indicators or crime stats. They want the damn house and the historic neighborhood and will simply wait for the other crap to change for the better with time; as it surely will. IMHO, nabes like Fort Green, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, Crown Hgts, PLG, etc. are not turning back. Where else are you going to purchase a large historic brownstone for $1m -$2m in NYC? Moreover, please check out the BBG’s Greenest Block results. Most of the gorgeous blocks that placed were in the aforementioned “fringe nabes”; should tell you something about people’s commitment to those communities (notwithstanding the fact that they also maintained the historic nature of these nabes throughout the past 60 years when no one but minorities wanted to live east of Flatbush Avenue).
I’ve been a member of this blog site since its inception in 2004 and I remember the naysayers prognosticating about crime and poverty and the ultimate implosion of the real estate bubble in Fort Green, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights. Yeah, how well did that work out for you? Fort Greene Park went from a the Wild West to Westminster Dog Show in 15 years. Lol! Some of us saw it coming years ago yet many others did not. Why? Because they were stuck in the past and blinded by stereotypes and misconceptions. With that said, I miss the great debates on this site with 100+ comments on a thread. It sometimes got very heated but it was always educational.
I sure miss me some:
BrownBomber
CrownHeightsProud
Bob Marvin
Hal
LinusVanPelt
LostInBrooklyn
Putnam-Denizen
Anonymous (inside joke!)
VERY WELL said DoubleBlackDiamond!!!!!! i live and own my brownstone in Bed-Stuy and remember the awful comments people would post about my neighborhood and I can not believe how many folks are coming to open houses with pre-quals and offers on the spot!
The NY Post author simply doesn’t get it. Gentrifiers are not moving to Bed-Stuy, Crown Hgts and Stuy Hgts in droves because they have some perverse desire to pay over $1m for a townhouse in a “perceived” crime riddled community. They are paying top dollar to move into tree-lined, historic communities with intact brownstones and limestones primarily because they are priced out of the more “established” nabes west of Flatbush Ave. And despite what the Post article might portend, this is a very rational and highly appropriate market response, irrespective of some of socio-economic challenges in these communities.
In essence, the free market is working as efficiently as one would expect. As long as there are brownstones going for $4m-$8m on “the other side” of Flatbush, buyers will continue flock and bid up properties on the east side of the Ave where similar beautiful homes can still be fetched for under $2mm. The efficiency of the free market is equally apparent in that there is indeed an appropriate discount afforded to buyers to compensate for the real discrepancy in quality of life issues, albeit that gap is now narrowing.
Again, buyers are not stupid and they are much more informed today; these buyers now know that you can get more value, house and lot size for your money east of Flatbush where the housing stock is on par if not better than some of the nabes west of Flatbush (in a pure architectural sense, e.g., Federal style of Carroll Gardens & Boerum Hill vs Beaux-Arts, Italianate, Queen Anne, Renaissance, Empire, etc. found throughout FG, CH, BS and CrH ). Do we actually believe that buyers are still ignorant of the fact that 150′ deep lots are the norm rather than the exception in Crown Hgts North? Properly values continue to escalate in nabes east of Flatbush, not because buyers are ignoring issues of crime and poverty, to the contrary, the millennium buyer is much smarter and better informed than its predecessor and are probably the most rational of all buyers.
The factors that attract buyers to these neighborhoods are varied and wide in scope. Notwithstanding the incredible architecture, what about the ease of public transportation, extra wide streets, avenues and boulevards and/or ample public street parking? Do we actually think these factors are lost on the millennium buyer? But what about the demographic attributes? The millennium buyer probably grew up in a more racially diverse and socially tolerant America and thus the sight of brown people does not pose as a immediate threat or deterrent to them living in the same community. I call this progress. The problem with the Post article is that the authors project their own bias and prejudices onto the greater public at large which couldn’t be any further from the truth. Young millennium buyers (i.e., gentrifiers) are educated, informed and are simply looking for good relatively value in nabes that are stable and hold real promise for future growth and development.
In short, democratization of the internet has made the Brooklyn real estate market highly efficient. My advice? When there is a temporary market dislocation, buy on the dips because “the trend is your friend” and the trajectory definitely looks upward. Never mind, isolated sore spots in architecturally significant nabes because those “problem properties” will surely change over time. Buy the house, buy the block and buy the overall nabe and let they negatives weed themselves out overtime.
Remember the cracked infested Roanoke Apartments that plagued S. Oxford in FG for decades? Luxury condominiums now. Remember the “hot sheets” Lefferts Place Hotel? Again, luxury condos. In other words, perceived negatives can actually produce positive buying opportunities due to misinformation and overly pessimistic projections by those ill informed. Just do your homework and don’t allow BS and highly slanted opinions like the Post article to dissuade you. Why? Because the same crap was written in ’02, ’06, ’10 and now on ’14 and we all know what happened with that.
With that said, can someone please explain to me why are we still surprised by the steady migration of gentrifiers east of Flatbush over the past decade? Lol! 🙂
I am telling the truth about my conversation with the police. I have absolutely no financial gain to do so – just passing along the info. The policeman described to me what goes on in great detail (and no we didn’t spend hours talking). He told me twhen someone comes home late at night – people that are well dressed, with cell phone buds in ears, etc. often there are people lurking near subway entrance. AGAIN this is late at night. The subjects are dragged to a nearby vacant building for which there are still many around and then hit and robbed and left or sometimes even raped. They were warning me to be very careful. They told me not to walk close to the projects when I come out of the subway – to go a few blocks over. They were NOT making it up. They did NOT say that everyone in the community is bad so please do not put words in their mouth. They were just telling me that crime was still high in the area and not to let my guard down just because the real estate prices are up and I have to admit I have gotten a little lax about this as the prices have gone up (and yes, I’ve lived in NYC for years so I am not a newbie to the City safety). Prices going up are NO indicator of safety.
So realize that I felt compelled to share what I saw first hand (the break in on Putnam during broad daylight) as well as my conversation with the police. Nothing more. Warning people not to have a false sense of security is important IMHO. Shootings are still very common in parts of Bed Stuy and a stray bullet hurts just as much as one that is intended.
Why don’t you spend some time on Marcus Garvey BLVD to see what it is like. That entire street is very troublesome.
There are droves of people driving prices up including this website. It is only fair to tell both sides.
See my last comment above. I definitely understand your concerns but I honestly think the issue is overblown. How many gentrifiers have been shot outside the housing projects at Gowanus, Wyhkoff, Ingersoll, Whitman, Farragut or Lafayette of the past 20 years? The answer is none. Do the research?
With respect to robberies and burglaries, I’d say its about average with the rest of the city. But please bear in mind that a lot of the increase in crime statistics in Brooklyn is the direct result of non-violent, petty smart phone thefts by a bunch of 12-16 year olds. These kids can get $300-$400 for an iPhone and all they have to do is snatch it and run into the train station. Easy mark. Guaranteed return. Steal one iPhone per day and you just made $2000 that week! Who needs to burglarize a home or rob a bank anymore? iPhones are the gifts that keep on giving. Low priority crime. Victims don’t care because many have insurance. Police don’t care. Expect a further increase in robberies throughout Brooklyn after Sept 19th (new iPhone 6 release date). Sad but true no matter the nabe.
But back then she was a free agent! Lol!
I know that!! Love her work and writing!!