Bed Stuy of 1982 Equally As Hard to Stereotype

As many readers are undoubtably aware, comedian Chris Rock’s latest creation is a show called “Everybody Hates Chris”–which is based on his childhood growing up on Decatur Street in Bedford Stuyvesant. Yesterday’s Times article picks up on how hard it is to stereotype Bed Stuy, something which has come up time and again on this site. Is it a dangerous wasteland of abandoned buildings or a charming enclave of turn-of-the-century brownstones. What the articles points out is that the answer is–and has been–both for quite some time:

Bed-Stuy has always been a block-by-block proposition, and some longtime residents say that the early 80’s neighborhood they remember was, in fact, less hardscrabble than the one portrayed on the screen…”The image of people afraid to come out of their homes because of drugs and gang warfare was not the reality of how we were living every day,” Doug Jones, a 37-year-old real estate agentwho grew up in a brownstone on McDonough Street said, adding, “It was very apple pie, nondescript and even a little boring.”

‘Wonder Years’ Via Bed Stuy [NY Times]