Pushing the Envelope: The Creeping Bed Stuy Border
Our post on the new building going up on Classon and Fulton ignited some debate about where Clinton Hill ends and Bed Stuy begins. We always think of the border being Classon, if for no other reason than that is where the most discernible break is aesthetically. We’re in good company: Both Kenneth Jackson’s “The…
Our post on the new building going up on Classon and Fulton ignited some debate about where Clinton Hill ends and Bed Stuy begins. We always think of the border being Classon, if for no other reason than that is where the most discernible break is aesthetically. We’re in good company: Both Kenneth Jackson’s “The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn” and Ellen Freudeneim’s “Brooklyn!” draw the line at Classon as well. It’s certainly no surprise that those marketing properties would stretch the boundaries to Franklin or Bedford but Nostrand? At some point it gets silly. Granted Bed Stuy is too large an area to be placed under one rubrick, but constantly pushing the definitional boundaries of Clinton Hill ain’t gonna solve that.
New Build on Classon [Brownstoner]
To Kevin:
That has kind of happened. The area east of Throop Avenue has reverted back to Stuyvesant Heights and the west as Clinton Hill East.
Maybe Bed Stuy should revert back to the original area names of Bedford and Stuyvesant Heights with what ever were the original borders (or roughly so)
The official border of Bedford-Stuyvesant is Flushing Avenue on the north, Classon Avenue on the west, Atlantic Avenue on the south, Kingston Avenue on the west, Eastern Parkway, Pitkin Aveue and East New York Avenue on the south, Van Sinderen Avenue on the east, and Broadway on the northeast.
I just moved to the city from Atlanta and just got my first place in NYC in Bed-Stuy. Could any one please tell me the oficial border of the neighborhood?
By the way, I am white, and yes, I was attracted to the area because it is inexpensive and relatively close to my job in Midtown. I certainly understand the backlash aimed at white residents in an historically black neighborhood (I used to live in Sweet Aubrun, MLK’s neighborhood of birth, in Atlanta), but the area where I will be living is safe and very friendly. The most violent act I have seen so far is some kids trying to pelt me with snowballs. So, though I realize that gentrification breeds the out-pricing of low income residents, it is merely an attempt on my part to find reasonably priced housing in a horribly over-priced city.
Any thoughts or comments are certainly welcome; you can e-mail if you’d like.
A marketing expert told me the name of “Bed-Stuy” needs to change because it’s (a) ugly and (b) has been forever tarnished by the motto “Do or die in Bed Stuy”. “Stuy” reminds me of that thing you get in your eye. How about Bedford Hill or Bedford Heights for the area abutting Clinton Hill?
Frankly, I don’t think it’s so offensive to allow the name “Clinton Hill” to be used to describe the western portion of Bed-Stuy because Clinton Hill has many black residents. It was quite another thing when people referred to Fort Greene and Clinton Hill as “Brooklyn Heights Vicinity”, because the Heights is primarily white.
I think Bed-Stuy needs to be split up into the several neighborhoods that it is. I think the few shitty blocks down by Ocean Hill where most of the crime happens should be called “Bad-Stuy”, and the historic district vicinity should be called “Stuyvesant Heights” and the area near Clinton Hill should be called “Clinton Hill East”.
Bedford-Stuyvesant wasn’t named for being between Bedford and Stuyvesant Aves.: It was named by the joining of two previously separate towns: “Bedford” and “Stuyvesant Heights,” decades and decades ago.
Hey guys, How far is Beford-Stuy from Downtown Manhattan?
It serves the marketers to expand Clinton Hill in the same way it did to break Fort Greene and Clinton Hill out of “Brooklyn Heights Vicinity” which is what they were called in the NY Times in 1990. Boundries are products of the marketing of the neighborhood irrespective of Community board lines. Maybe we need a ‘Clinton Hill Vicinity’ to solve the conflict.
I grew up in Bklyn and can remember when there wasn’t a neighborhood called Clinton Hill.