New Bed-Stuy More Like Old Bed-Stuy?
Bedford Stuyvesant was the childhood home of both Billy Joel Norman Mailer and Lena Horne, reports Globe St., and it’s posed to become such an artistically, economically and racially diverse neighborhood again. “In recent years, Bed-Stuy’s population has begun rebounding and the demographic mix of that population has been diversifying. Those with a historical bent…
Bedford Stuyvesant was the childhood home of both Billy Joel Norman Mailer and Lena Horne, reports Globe St., and it’s posed to become such an artistically, economically and racially diverse neighborhood again. “In recent years, Bed-Stuy’s population has begun rebounding and the demographic mix of that population has been diversifying. Those with a historical bent might point out that the demographics are returning to the kind of diversity seen here in former years.” Of course, some of that is code for white people moving in, and as we know from yesterday’s discussion of the reversal of what demographers call “white flight,” that doesn’t necessarily mean a neighorhood’s on the upswing. Here’s what they report it has going for it: Last year, the Bed-Stuy Gateway Business Improvement District was formed; most of the area still qualifies for the 421-a tax abatement program, despite changes to it in July; and they’ve seen an influx of retail — Home Depot, Applebee’s and a consumer banking center are cited. Wait, aren’t we the borough of Mom and Pop shops?
A Tree Grows in Bed-Stuy [Globe St]
Brooklyn Brownstones. Photo by sfcityscape.
“The schools it [sic] Bed-Stuy suck.”
And you know this….how?
Well lets see what happens in Bedford Stuyvesant. I think if a person gets into the neighborhood now they will be a happy person in a few years… This is the time to invest in this neighborhood. I really wish that there could be a nicer connection with Clinton Hill and Bedford Stuyvesant. It seems like you have a strange transitional area that neither neighborhood likes to claim. I think developers should put money is this area Fulton and Deklab between Classion and Bedford. Some streets like Monroe and Gates are really nice in this zone but many of the other streets need help. The bones are there just have to put some meat on them…
Tybur6, I agree with you that the flippancy about income sometimes heard on this board is offputting… the whole mindset of “If you don’t make $100K in NYC you’re just not trying” really pisses me off. I’m just saying that I think there are a lot of folks like us with post-bubble buying power unrelated to their annual income, even nowadays; and the hypothetical “young family” is often not a first-time buyer. Starter apartments give you a leg up.
Tybur–A young family, if both parents were working at decent paying jobs, could afford a 640,000 mortgage (which would come out at around 4G a month), especially if they bought a Brownstone in Bed Stuy, with the possibility of renting one floor out and knocking another 1500 off the monthly nut. This is essentially what my wife and I are doing and neither of us work in finance or law or advertising etc.
Stuymom, it appears neither you nor your peers have much confidence in your neighborhood school, as you send your kids to a charter school and your friend sends theirs to a school in CH.
What happens to parents who aren’t as lucky as yourself and don’t win a charter school lottery ticket? What happens to parents who can’t game the system like your friend and send their kids to school in another district? They are left with miserably failing schools for their kids.
I just wonder whether a 3/4 million dollar house is such a deal when the non-monetary risks far outweigh the financial benefits.
Amzi, that Verona house….Do you know if it’s the one that sold last year (or perhaps 2006) for $850k? It was an investor and he totally gutted the place even though it had some details left. Then they just let it sit and it looks like a sh*t hole now. Before he purchased it, it had been empty for quite some time. I think that’s the only shell on the block.
StuyMom… That’s EXACTLY the “special source” I’m talking about. If you didn’t have this capital because of your windfall, would you be able to buy anything for $750,000??
Having windfall profits and lots of excess capital is not typical of “young families” and “art types” (whit the exception of the folks that are just “into the Arts”)
I’m not judging your situation, StuyMom. You’ve basically won. What I’m reacting to is the flippant tone people take when they refer to 3/4 of a million dollars as a basically affordable. Say someone magically had a 15% downpayment ($112k), that what a 1st time home buyer (i.e., the young family) person does… makes a downpayment, no more… and probably less. A “young family” or this elusive bohemian-type can’t afford a $640,000 mortgage! That’s crazy.
la di da–if the schools suck they don’t just suck for white families.
la di da di, if you have been following the news you may have heard how families who bought in Tribeca specifically for the schools are finding that the school doesn’t have room for their kids. Parents in other hot neighborhoods are also struggling with school overcrowding. Any parent in NYC who wants the best education possible for their kids needs to be prepared to hustle, I don’t care where you live. Our kid goes to a charter school in a nearby neighborhood. Another Bed-Stuy family I know sends their kid to PS 11 in Clinton Hill. But this is not meant to dismiss the schools here, because there are a couple of well-regarded charter schools in BS too, and a new school that just opened called the Brooklyn Brownstone School. Plus some parents are now banding together to start a new middle school called the Hurston School.
I don’t have the energy to get into the racist implications of your stupid post.