Which Nabe with Kids?
My kids go to school in Downtown Brooklyn/Ft. Greene & we are looking to rent a 2BR for $2,500 or less. Safety & parking are our big concerns. Which nabe nearby would you look in?
My kids go to school in Downtown Brooklyn/Ft. Greene & we are looking to rent a 2BR for $2,500 or less. Safety & parking are our big concerns. Which nabe nearby would you look in?
This really depends on where you are with schools. If kids are in elementary and you’re looking for middle schools at some point, or if they’re younger and you’ll need to find an elmentary school, I’d suggest WT on the G, for the sake of being in District 15. If kids are older and middle school isn’t an issue, might be easier to be in Clinton Hill if you can find a place. Middle schools in Dist. 13 are inferior to 15, unfortunately.
If your kid is in school in Fort Green, Windsor Terrace seems really really inconvenient to me. I would definitely look in Bed Stuy near the train stops. Check out the blocks within the triangle bordered by Fulton, Hancock, and Stuyvesant Ave. Super quick to FG, great housing stock, great prices, and as far as I can tell, great community. I bet you could get a really nice, roomy apartment for that price.
A sense of security is something you are going to have to assess for yourself, by hanging out wherever you are considering moving, at diverse hours/days, to see how it feels to you. Lots and lots of people live happily and safely in BS.
The only thing that rules out BS for me is having a kid who will be starting school in a couple of years — when I move, it’s going to be into a neighborhood specifically selected for the zoned school and there aren’t any in BS that I would choose. But since your kid is already in a school, that’s not an issue for me.
I bet it has the easiest parking, too, compared to other neighborhoods discussed so far.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/realestate/23living.html
I did not realize that the G to Church was permanent. For some reason I thought it was a supplement to the F train when they are doing track work.
The Ditmas Park suggestion is not a bad idea either, although I have heard that on-street parking can be an issue sometimes.
(or my bit of CH is 77. not to offend any neighborhood purists. heh.)
(also, stats aren’t everything: for 09 and 2010, the west village (precinct 06) was way more crime than crown heights (77), yet I doubt many would say CH is the ‘safer’ nabe.)
While I think the original question was probably about relative crime stats, irieman’s comments are probably more important day-to-day; Most of NYC is really pretty safe, and the relative safety of WT vs. carrol gardens vs. south slope vs. whatever is fairly negligible.
Feeling secure, however, is a pretty personal issue, and some folks (relatives of mine, for example) may feel unsafe in my neighborhood not because the crime stats are higher (or not) than where they’re from, but because there are run down buildings and a lot of black people (an extreme example). I feel secure in my part of crown heights north bordering bed stuy, but I suspect the crime rate (for some kinds of crime, and for the entire precinct) is probably higher than a lot of other places. I found my block in chicago really sketchy at night, just because nobody was around, even though crime was relatively low. Ditto the financial district.
Statistics aside, fsrg, it doesn’t matter how low crime is listed as being, if you still feel sketched out coming home at night.
Invisible, the only amentity I cross Prospect Express for is the park and Juice Box wine. Everything else I need is available on the West side: yoga studio, gym, grocery,train station, laundry, restaurants, coffee shop.
Official dividing line between WT and Kensington is Caton Avenue, but you’re right: they do seem to flow together over here. Speaking of which, OP, if you’re thinking of WT, think about Kensington, too: even bigger homes and just 1 or 2 more stops on the F or G. Rents slightly lower.
Good luck.
I almost got mugged once in Brooklyn Heights with my boyfriend, in the evening but not late. luckily we noticed that the (non-threatening-looking) guy was oddly following/waiting for us and pretending not to and we went into a busy place for a while. I normally feel very safe there but in general try to keep alert at all times. It’s nice to either have bustling streets or businesses that you can pop into if need be.
Please, invisible. That’s so immature. My husband was mugged by two big threatening guys who pinned him on the ground, right outside our prime North Park Slope block’s coop building only just a few years ago. There’s been a slew of muggings there recently. So yeah, good luck with that cutesy breezy jokey attitude about walking down desolate, dark streets.