Leaving Brooklyn For The Burbs
After 10 years we are leaving Brooklyn for the suburbs. The primary reason is a desire for consistently decent public schools for our 2 kids. Other reasons are the typical ones you hear – more space, a yard, etc. Despite our rationale for moving I find myself deeply saddened about leaving and am worried that…
After 10 years we are leaving Brooklyn for the suburbs. The primary reason is a desire for consistently decent public schools for our 2 kids. Other reasons are the typical ones you hear – more space, a yard, etc.
Despite our rationale for moving I find myself deeply saddened about leaving and am worried that I will have a hard time adjusting to suburban life.
What have been the experiences of others who have blazed the suburban trail before me? How long did it take to adjust (if ever)? Were your reasons for leaving ultimately justified? What do you miss most about Brooklyn?
I still haven’t totally adjusted to moving from lower Manhattan to Bay Ridge and that was nine years ago.
For instance, my brain is still wired to think of numbered streets as incrementing north-wise and “downtown” as being, well, down.
I never get the arguments people make about better schools. Didn’t you people go to schol? The people who got a decent education got it because they or their parents forced them to do the work: to study and complete the homework. It’s rarely about the curriculum or the teachers.
If you want opinions from people who actually made the move and like it, you should ask on a suburban forum – not one dedicated to real estate in Brooklyn.
You should read the article on the studies that show that in 15-20 years time, the farther suburbs will become ghettos, much like many urban cities did decades ago.
It would appear that we are in a pattern of reverse suburban flight, and it seems to be headed for a period of intensification as gas prices rise, foreclosures increasing in suburban cookie cutter neighborhoods, school budgets getting slashed and the general malaise seen across the board in America’s suburban population right now.
I hear about fewer and fewer people who move to the suburbs because the number one reason is because they WANT to. 9 times out of 10, it seems to be because they HAVE to for economic reasons.
So that means that inherently, the suburbs are less desirable than cities.
That makes them already on their way to having more possibilities for neglect and possible hard times.
Things have changed in the last 5-10 years. Cities have become more expensive than the suburbs for the first time in almost 50 years.
This shift back to the urban core is essential for this country to survive.
We moved to the burbs (CT) when my daughter was 3 and my son a newborn and we lasted a year. Had we stuck it out, I have no doubt that I would have adjusted by now (ten years later), but at the time I really couldn’t stand it. This time of year (miserable hot summer) in Brooklyn is awful and it’s so tempting to move to more bucolic areas, but there is a price to pay. Based on my experience, if you give yourself three years before you reconsider, you should be fine. Also, I think it helps if you’re older. We moved at 32–really too young for the suburbs. Now, when I need to spend less time in cafes, evenings out, etc., I could probably handle it.
Good luck
The person who said to move to queens for the right balance had it right.
Have you seen the news? Do you really think schools in suburbs are now or will be better in the future? In both areas they are plagued by budget problems. NJ is bankrupt and you can’t possibly raise the taxes any higher on Long Island. Both areas are suffering from increased crime, over crowding, and racial tension with the explosion of latino immigrants. I just saw on the news last night that some NJ town wants to force landlords to check for green cards before renting to tenants. We’ve all seen local school board members jailed for embezelment (sp?). I also seem to see just as many reports of teacher/student affair scandals from L.I. as from here in brooklyn.
It ain’t candyland out there. It’s just harder to walk to the corner for a carton of milk.
Moving from one of the greatest urban societies in the free world to a life bound by the automobile, in this day and age seems like a false economy.
Keep in mind that once your kids are out of public schools in NJ, you’ll still be paying 20K a year (and going up) taxes to support a system you no longer use. Food for thought. Having grown up in NJ, I can hardly say I’d recommend it, but everyone is different. I did hear my teenage son say to me for the first time last week…”Dad…thank you for not making us grow up in New Jersey” (that was after we went out to visit my sisters who still live out there)
Made life (struggles and all) in Brooklyn all seem worth it.
Wow – OP this can hardly be encouraging. If I were to move out of Brooklyn, I would go to a town like Hastings on the Hudson that has a village feel. You can live in the actual village and walk everywhere…
Lived in Brooklyn 1992-1999
Moved to Teaneck in 1999.
Moved to Park Slope in 2002.
I feel like those three years in NJ were lost.