Boerum Hill: In a Nutshell
The New York Times profiled Boerum Hill this weekend (timed, perhaps, to coincide with yesterday’s Atlantic Antic), focusing on the neighborhood’s boutiques and its transformation from shady (“rooming houses, drugs, and prostitution” in the 1970s and ’80s) to chic. On the real estate front, prices in the neighborhood are dropping as they are everywhere else,…
The New York Times profiled Boerum Hill this weekend (timed, perhaps, to coincide with yesterday’s Atlantic Antic), focusing on the neighborhood’s boutiques and its transformation from shady (“rooming houses, drugs, and prostitution” in the 1970s and ’80s) to chic. On the real estate front, prices in the neighborhood are dropping as they are everywhere else, but still, nothing’s cheap in Boerum Hill: townhouses selling for over $1.5 million, condos and co-ops between $600,000 and $1 million, and rentals starting at $1,300 for a studio. New construction in the area includes Green on Dean and the Nu Hotel on Smith, as well as several planned or unfinished projects on the periphery of the area. Beyond the housing market and the area’s commercial offerings, the profile gives a nod to yesterday’s Atlantic Antic and it profiles Boerum Hill’s schools with their test scores of varying levels. Did the writer miss anything?
Subway Lines Galore, But Who’s Leaving? [NY Times]
Atlantic Antic photo by Jim in Times Square
Rob,
From what I read from you, you wouldn’t last 5 minutes in either 1970’s Brooklyn or 2009 Detroit.
sadly unless a neighborhood is nothing BUT wine shops, yuppie bars, organic supermarkets, designer baby clothing stores, it is considered crapola and unliveable. how did this come to be anyway?
*rob*
And crack vials could be found in lots of other neighborhoods and schoolyards then (even UES) and can probably be found now. So you can always paint this awful picture which is not untrue but …
What do you mean had no ‘discernable business’? there were barber shops, never a dollar store but not the ’boutiques’ of today but stores that sold household goods, cheap toys,
takeout chinese, the latin restaurants (which some still exist), furniture store, etc, etc etc. It was busy during the day for working class people. Just seemed to cater to different demographic.
Boerum Hill is really nice now. State Street reminds me of the way Park Slope used to be.
In the late ’80s-early 90s there were crack viles found in the playground at 261 and hookers on the stoops of Pacific Street. PS 261 really should have been in the article as that school was a key part of the neighborhood becoming family friendly. Many Smith Street businesses had no discernable business, except for the bodegas, the butcher, dollar stores, and Johhney’s bootery.
oh yeah youve mentioned that before. well obviously i wouldnt be part of the gay skank scene back then, as i am not part of it now. i probably wouldnt even BE gay if i was born in another time.
*rob*
Not so sure of that rob. When I got out of school in 1980 I stayed in Chicago. If I had moved to NYC I would be dead now. I’m sure you can figure out why.
sounds like nyc was so much more fun back then 🙁 i think i was born in the wrong time 🙁 i know, i know, i should just move to detroit or something.. buy me a plane tikkie and maybe i will.
*rob*
Boerum Hill was very shady in the 70’s. Pacific and Dean were lined with parked 18 wheelers and truckers being serviced by the local prostitutes. God forbid you were an absentee landlord your brownstone foyer would be used as a makeshift bed.