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
^^^ reasons why ft greene is bad for children:
drive bys
Reasons Williamsburg is a bad place for children:
1.) Narrow sidewalks
2.) What are perceived to be “bad” public schools (Note: they’re not that bad.)
3.) Tons of construction sites partially blocking the narrow sidewalks (this issue may be somewhat better now.)
4.) predominance of mothers who are yoga instructors, stylists and interior decorators. All of these professions are fine. But so many in one place? Terrifying.
3.) Lack of shade at playgrounds
4.) Lack of shade anywhere
5.) Lead content in soil of McCarren Park
6.) Most old housing stock is railroady, and most new housing stock is not any nicer or larger, but costs a great deal more.
Reasons Williamsburg is good for children
1.) There are shoe stores that sell cool shoes for them
2.) Handy branch of Area Kids
3.) Flying Squirrel
4.) Mini Jake is a great place to hang out on a snowy afternoon. Although he should stop charging for local delivery of his really, really expensive furniture.
5.) Preponderance of bars makes hanging out in afternoon with children in one surprisingly easy.
6.) Large number of yoga studios (one every three blocks) makes regaining prepregnancy figure easy. (At least for everyone not me.)
7.) Woodhull ER teaches valuable life skills.
8.) Large number of uncrowded playgrounds, all conveniently located right along the BQE.
9.) There’s a pool and will soon be another one.
10.) Choosing “Cecil” as your son’s name won’t really stand out when his classmates are all called things like Denim, Stone and Eero.
Rob-3 words: mommy and daddy
Oops. Should be “Not for one moment”. What kind of slip was that?
The condo developers and RE brokers who advertise in the NYT planted this article. No family we know are considering Williamsburg to live in, not for one women. I love Williamsburg. Love to go there. But without my kid! I would never raise a child where we can’t easily reach a park or someplace to play, or where there’s only one subway that goes nowhere in Brooklyn. All these families in Williamsburg might as well be living in Maplewood NJ (how unhip!) for all the driving they have to do.
People who wanted Tribeca and Soho five years ago = Williamsburg’s new class.
New York City and Brooklyn in particular, over the past 20-30 years, have become a sort of finishing school for life.
Young folks from all over the US and the world come here to experience and live the “urban lifestyle” and see how it fits while pursuing interests in culture, art, love, etc.
Many parents are willingly or in some cases unwittingly financing many of these personal journeys of discovery and entrepeneurship with the understanding that creativity often needs a benefactor.
Landlords and developers are aware of these trends and rely on them to move the market ever forward. In a nutshell, that’s why the rents are Too Damned High!
i just read the article… it’s so strange cuz the salaries of the types of jobs of the people in the article do not equate with the sky high housing costs of the condos they are buying. hmmmm..
*rob*
I confess I didn’t read the article but I lived in W’burg pre-kid. As a parent, I couldn’t imagine living somewhere with such a dearth of green space. It was bad enough just with a dog, which is a major reason we ended up in Crown Heights. The one couple I know with a school-age kid in Williamsburg sends her to school in Greenpoint. I really think the allure is not for parents per se but rather for a certain demographic, some of whom happen to have kids.