Park Slope vs. Upper West Side
I have been reluctant to post this question, but here it goes. My partner of 8 years and I currently live in the West 60s in Manhattan. I have had a thing for Park Slope brownstones since I first visited the area as a teenager in the ’80s, and over the last year or so…
I have been reluctant to post this question, but here it goes. My partner of 8 years and I currently live in the West 60s in Manhattan. I have had a thing for Park Slope brownstones since I first visited the area as a teenager in the ’80s, and over the last year or so we have increasingly considered moving into one.
The pros of our current situation are that we have owned our apartment for about 7 years and generally like it a lot. It’s a fully renovated pre-war on a high floor with unobstructed views of Central Park. We can both walk to our jobs in midtown and have many nearby amenities (restaurants, Fairway, Whole Foods, movie theaters, etc.). The cons are that our apartment is only a one-bedroom (a guest bedroom and dining room would be great), it’s costly (maintenance fees, etc. of $2k/month), we’ll never be able to afford a two-bedroom version of our apartment (five-room, park-view condos are double the price of the brownstones we’ve looked at; co-ops are not as bad, but the board requirements are prohibitive) and our neighborhood is becoming less and less of a neighborhood (new high-rises and big box stores all over the place — we mainly live here because of the convenience factor and our view).
The pros of Park Slope are that it has a real neighborhood feel, it’s downright beautiful and the people seem great. Also, we can probably afford a pretty decent brownstone. The cons are the commute to work (30-40 minutes on the subway, based on our test runs), losing the conveniences of a full-service building (doorman to accept deliveries, etc.) and, well, it’s just the two of us and we don’t have kids to fill up a house, so there’s the guilt factor — a whole house for just two people seems decadent. However, I don’t think we would move to Park Slope to live in an apartment — the idea of owning a brownstone is really the draw.
We’ve thought about more “neighborhoody” areas of Manhattan that we like, such as the Village and West Village, but the houses there will forever be out of our price range, we don’t want to live in a loft or a modern glass building, and the pre-war, non-loft apartment stock downtown isn’t that great (mostly one-bedrooms and so-so combinations). Here’s one more fact for the mix — we have a small weekend house about two hours out of the city, we spend at least half of our weekends there and we intend to keep it. So, should we give Park Slope a try, or should we just stay put? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Truly sorry if all this just sounds annoying.
broker and grand army — thanks. It’s interesting how the responses to my post originally seemed to caution against moving to Brooklyn and then started leaning the other way. Part of the reason may have been the incorrect assumption about the location of our weekend house, which I corrected a little too late in the process, so many posts focused on the additional commuting time to points north and west of the city. To answer your question, grand army, the weekend house is on Long Island, so the commute from Brooklyn is about the same as the commute from the UWS. We did consider Prospect Heights initially, focusing mostly on Park Place and Sterling. Great houses, but not many on the market. Although we’re leaning toward PS now, we haven’t ruled out PH.
Tricky decision. My partner and I live in a brownstone in Prospect Heights and love Brooklyn dearly. We rent one floor of our house and find being landlords no sweat at all — and what a difference it makes to our monthly expenses! We have no guilt about the space we occupy especially since we constantly have friends and family visiting. I’m also THRILLED to never have to deal with a coop/condo board again. Did I miss in the thread the location of your weekend home? That would be my major concern because a) you’ll miss the mellow Brooklyn weekends (one of the best reasons for living here) and b) if you are upstate, it will add an hour to your commute. Btw, Prospect Heights is still about 20% less expensive than the Slope yet often more convenient (subway access on 2/3 and Q/B; closer to BAM; closer to Brooklyn Museum and Botanical Gdns). The prime blocks are pretty much indistinguishable from the Slope.
My partner and I commute to the North Fork from Park Slope. The Jackie Robinson is definately the way to go and then we take the Northern Parkway and catch the LIE later in the trip. We’ve been doing this commute for 10 years and have tried all different routes and have found this one the best. Can’t say enough about Park Slope, it is a great place to live.
You should buy today’s (Jan. 19th) co-op of the day.
Ultimate PS townhouse living without the empty bedroom guilt.
Vastly superior subway access and commute time with the 2/3, B/Q.
LIRR is just a stop (or a modest walk) away.
Check and mate!
One last thing on the weekend commute — when we’re not driving we often take the LIRR from Penn Station after work. We could continue doing that. On the way back, we could take the LIRR to Atlantic Terminal. According to the LIRR schedule, the trains to Atlantic run with the same frequency as trains to Penn and the trip takes about the same amount of time.
Well, good luck and post back so we know what you decided!
dm1204, right now we’re fixated on a house, but we’ll let you know if we change our minds! As for the drive out of the city, to avoid traffic we normally leave on a Friday night after dinner (around 10 or 10:30 p.m.), and even during the peak summer months traffic tends to be fairly light at that time. I assume the same would be true on Eastern Parkway. The return trip is the tough one — on Sunday, leaving any time between noon and 9:00 p.m. is bad. We have low expectations, so I’m sure we’ll find a suitable route.
P.S. We’re on 8th just below Grand Army so Eastern Parkway is right there, that’s what I’m basing my time estimates on. And, when I’m going it’s usually early a.m. so next to no traffic.
One other thing you might consider is living in a brownstone condo, top floor (or two) and having a roof deck rather than a garden. We’re in that exact set-up in a 3b/2b and the roof deck is glorious. There’s something about being above everything that I find different to a garden, so great to have some uninterrupted expanse, relieves a bit of the claustrophobia of city living. Heck, buy our place, we need more space!