Brooklyn: The Land of Milk, Honey & Celebrities
The New York Observer devotes quite a lot of ink this week to the County of Kings. In addition to analyzing the borough’s laissez-faire relationship with its celebrity residents, the article notes that the borough has become many people’s first choice as opposed to just a cheaper alternative for those priced out of Manhattan: Gentrification…
The New York Observer devotes quite a lot of ink this week to the County of Kings. In addition to analyzing the borough’s laissez-faire relationship with its celebrity residents, the article notes that the borough has become many people’s first choice as opposed to just a cheaper alternative for those priced out of Manhattan:
Gentrification has finally achieved what cracks, gangs, graffiti, bankruptcy, budget busting, Giuliani, the smoking ban and global terrorism could not: It has rendered Manhattan utterly uninhabitable. These days, the Upper East Side and the Lower East Side have both become the forward positions of what can no longer be reasonably called the bridge-and-tunnel crowd. No point in dressing in rags and belting out lyrics from Rent, because every block of the East Village looks like frat row at the University of Michigan. Brooklyn presents itself as a happy medium between surviving in Manhattan and sequestering oneself in the suburbs, between continuing to live like a college kid and sniffing enough carbon monoxide in your garage to become a happy zombie. In Brooklyn, New Yorkers can rehearse their adulthood without committing to it; can play in their brownstones without feeling trapped inside of them. And Brooklyn is no longer Failure-ville. Even the celebrities—people who dreamed of making it long ago, who came to Manhattan to get famous—show proof of their success in Brooklyn. It is the dream.
Welcome to Schnooklyn [NY Observer]
What I don’t understand is that all of these so-called newcomers, celebrities or not, seem to think that they’ve discovered America when they come to Brooklyn. We long-time Brooklyn residents have been here all along and have enjoyed what these people think is a novel and previously unknown way of living. I never considered Brooklyn to be Manhattan’s poor relative. It’s a thriving city that’s been through some rough patches in the past, but we’re doing very well, thank you, “celebrities” or not. As for moving to Brooklyn because Manhattan housing is unaffordable, well, Brooklyn is on it’s way to matching the unaffordability factor. Quite honestly, I find articles like this bordering on offensive, but I try to keep a sense of humor and chalk it up to immaturity.
Personally, I get more of a kick seeing Philip Lopate strolling down Smith than any of those damn movie stars!
A lot of people move to Brooklyn because they simply can’t afford to rent or own in Manhattan, but once they’re in Brooklyn, they’re happy to stay here.
Another assinine article written all the time that keeps up the manhattanite (code work for educated affluent white person) vs. rest of NYC banalities. As in which nabes have ‘Seal of Approval’ to live in without sacrificing my social standing.
I say give up this boro nonsense – and refuse do even enter into such provincial discourse. I live in NYC period whether its Richmond Hill, Tottenville, Riverdale, Bedstuy,
or Murray Hill.
it’s always the same 7 “celebrities” (and that’s including Paul Auster). lame.
I’ve read that Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams (?) are celebrities 10,000 times so I guess it must be true. I’m not sure that I’ve ever actually seen them act in anything, but that is my loss I’m sure.
As usual, that article made brooklynites sound like self-satisfied idiots.
not really creepy, but more an article trying to make a neat and pat conclusion about why one would choose bklyn. it’s the typical NY media need to package a story that isn’t really a story…the one aspect of it that I did find interesting was this notion of the shift in the minds of some manhattanites that moving to bkln is no longer a sign of failure. I have to admit, in the first years of moving here I was very defensive, in part because we HAD to move due to financial straits, but I didn’t want my friends who were staying in manhattan to perceive that. they would more often than not say, but if you could afford it, you’d move back, right? I still don’t know how to answer that, because some days I would and other days I swear by brooklyn. we could afford to move back now, albeit with some downsizing (we live in a brownstone now), but seem to be staying.
There’s something very creepy about that article. I’m so sick of hearing about Heath Ledger. And how can Louise Crawford talk about how people in Brooklyn are so respectful of celebrities when she has devoted long entries in her blog to stalkerish commentary about Jonathan Safran Foer’s house? And — People who live in Brooklyn “can rehearse their adulthood without committing to it”? WTF does that even mean? And once we commit to adulthood, do we have to stop “playing in our brownstones” and move to Maplewood?
now we can all feel better about ourselves, we live with celeberties. yeah!!!!!