Williamsburg All Grown Up
Bougie couples with kids are buying in Williamsburg. That’s the central message of the cover story from yesterday’s New York Times real estate section titled “Williamsburg, Toddlertown.” There’s one couple who bailed on Park Slope after only a few months because, well, let them tell you: It felt really suburban to me, said the 29-year-old…
Bougie couples with kids are buying in Williamsburg. That’s the central message of the cover story from yesterday’s New York Times real estate section titled “Williamsburg, Toddlertown.” There’s one couple who bailed on Park Slope after only a few months because, well, let them tell you: It felt really suburban to me, said the 29-year-old jewelry designer and blogger. Park Slope has puppets and guitar strumming for kids. In Williamsburg, it is like rock ‘n’ roll for kids. And there are more and more of these kids. The Williamsburg Northside Preschool has grown from a daycare center in 1999 to a ten-classroom school with plans to expand to a third building and accommodate up to the fifth grade. The demand from families has also prompted the developers of such high profile projects as 80 Met and The Edge to reconfigure apartment layouts to include more three-bedroom offerings. Any readers out there fall into this demographic of recent family-sized converts to The Burg? Tell us why you made the call.
Williamsburg, Toddlertown [NY Times]
Photo by Trespassers Will
Good points, LaLaLaLand. I’ve always wondered who were all these rich single people who were supposed to be living in all those faux-loft studios.
one more – i know only a couple of families at 31 in greenpoint, and they all live in Greenpoint. most williamsburg families are at either 132 and or at 84 for the dual language program. i know at least 50 families between these 2 schools. just not brownstoners, but they exist.
re greenspace – mccarren park and mcgolrick park – and, the grand street playground, while not green, has a good playground. the riverfront also terrific for kids. what kid doesn’t love skipping stones. new playground there is very cool.
FSRQ – please look up these three district 14 schools (in WB/Greenpoint): 132, 31 + 34. top marks/5 stars all around – check either the DOE and insideschools.org. isn’t 31 one of the top top elementary schools in the city? (academically speaking, realize there are other things that people care about). Also, the dual language spanish program at 84, and their prek, is quite good. 84’s prek is considered top by any standard anywhere actually. 84 and 31 are magnet schools, so you don’t have to be zoned, and if you are in east williamsburg/bushwick/bedstuy in a horrible zone, they are good options. many bedstuy families at 84 for sure because it’s pretty close and then parents can just hop on the L to go to work.
Also, Williamsburg Northside (private schools) is doing great and is expanding and has room too. again, know several people from bedstuy traveling to that school, especially for pre-school.
The irony about Northwest brooklyn vs. brownstone brooklyn – (PS, Cobble H, CG + BH) is that there’s room in the district 14 schools. every kid can get into a prek for instance. Whereas in these brownstone neighborhoods, you’re probably shut out for prek, or the school is on the brink of not being able to accept zoned kids.
i find the NYTimes articles like these to usually be semi-dumb. if the participants come off poorly, I blame the the writer. people interviewed all seem pretty successful – wasn’t one guy a partner in a law firm? they may have been asked an hour’s worth of questions and got comfortable and lighthearted, not knowing how their statements will be used.
Overall though, good for the neighborhood, and for telling potential buyers that there are families here.
Here’s my take on this thread.
Austin, St. Louis, Phildelphia, wherever the hell else it doesn’t matter: artists move to where the galleries are. Are there galleries in St. Louis that move millions worth of artwork and inspire generations of kids to be interns for free just to meet and greet the right people (as well as view art by their contemporaries)? No? Then those places will never attract artists.
As for the Bronx: it’s a great place (I spent some time there personally), but it’s also the poorest place in NYC by a LOT, has the most crime by a LOT, etc. Bruckner should be a great strip; the South Bronx should be inundated with enough artists to make Bushwick look like a passing thought, but it’s not. Why? It’s sandwiched between an off-limits waterfront and a massive multi-block housing project that stretches 6 avenues wide and 10 blocks deep on the west side, not to mention 95 and all the triboro exits, hunts point truck traffic and prostitution, etc.
I don’t think it should surprise anyone families are moving to the luxury developments that were built for them in Williamsburg though; if anything the developers were short-sited by building too much small-roomed housing for single trustfunders and not enough family stock for the people who actually can afford to buy housing like this: established career types. Welcome to your destiny, Williamsburg.
PS – where the hell is Wine Lover? Thought he’d be all over this.
I <3 Heather’s system, period – pretty much agree with it all.
Except maybe schools – the most ridiculous thing about the article was the short shrift given to local schools. They mentioned the two best elementary schools, which are quite good (though at least in the case of 132, incredibly overcrowded). But the two schools zoned for most of the people in this article (84 and 17) are at the other end of the spectrum – underenrolled and underperforming.
And somewhere between Foster and Buttermilk lies the truth. The Greenpoint oil spill is not underneath most of Williamsburg (hell, it’s not even under most of Greenpoint). On the other hand, it’s not trapped under an impermeable layer, either (some of it has been actively leaking into Newtown Creek).
Williamsburg and Greenpoint do have environmental issues (the perc plume mentioned above, legacy MGP sites, small hot spots of lead and other toxins). It also still has active industries (including Radiac).
Williamsburg-Bushwick does have high asthma rates – you can look it up (tied With Bed-Stuy for highest hospitalization rate in Brooklyn for children under 14 years old). But the city’s definition of Williamsburg doesn’t include the areas discussed in this article. Greenpoint (which is defined as 11222 and 11211) has among the lowest rates in the borough.
I <3 Heather’s numbering system.
DH, yeah, ft greene is rough and I think the Flea is drawing in the wrong crowd. Clinton Hill, OTOH, is fine though