Living in Crown Heights
Crown Heights gets the New York Times’ Living In treatment this weekend, along with a lead photo of the racial diversity on display at the popular watering hole Franklin Park. Since most of us are familiar enough with the area, we can dispense with the basics and cut straight to the controversy. The article mentions…
Crown Heights gets the New York Times’ Living In treatment this weekend, along with a lead photo of the racial diversity on display at the popular watering hole Franklin Park. Since most of us are familiar enough with the area, we can dispense with the basics and cut straight to the controversy. The article mentions a pair of couples that are in contract to buy a house together on Sterling Place. Here’s some of the rationale:
In the two couples’ eyes, attractions included ethnic diversity and affordability, and — in contrast with other possibilities, like Bedford-Stuyvesant — relative greenness. As Ms. Kelly put it, There were just a lot of trees around, and a lot of families, and a lot of walking space.
Diss! Our question is: Which of the two neighborhoods has one the Greenest Block honors more? Anyone know?
Living In: Crown Heights [Brownstoner]
Photo by nrvlowdown
I think it’s misleading to say CH is racially diverse. (Unless you think of diverse as non-white, which is sort of silly.) I looked at a great condo two weeks ago but was surprised how non-diverse CH was. How is that even possible in 2010???
I also was trying to figure out what this is all about… MM is right the Times should have came out Saturday and heard what people that live in Crown Heights think about the neighborhood and where it is going. Crown Heights is one beautiful neighborhood hands down I wish the NYT times would have focus on that… Did the even talk about Dean Street?
that new high school about to complete construction looks really really nice digs.
Agreed, ishtar. Our schools here in CH will never be better until there is a concerted effort on the parts of everyone concerned, school administration, teachers and parents, to do so. Students, too. Imagine being a student in one of these schools and constantly hearing and reading that nothing much is expected of you, because the building you enter everyday for school, and everyone in it, is regarded as crap. Motivated to succeed? Why bother?
As a non parent, but a child of educators, I understand why people don’t want to send their kids to certain underperforming schools, but honestly, how are they ever supposed to become better, if they are shunned by the people who are most able to advocate for serious change. Especially elementary schools, where education begins.
There are two excellent parochial schools here in CHN, for those who are interested. St. Mark’s Day School, an Episcopal elementary school on Brooklyn Ave, near President St., and St. Gregory the Great School, on St. Johns and Brooklyn.
ishtar – make that LIBERAL UES parents. That is, they’re liberals until public policy impacts them adversely.
Forced integreation was supposed to be for blue-collar types in Yonkers, not for elite Upper East Siders.
@ dirty hipster – Thank you! I totally agree with everything you typed.
I also find the “I wouldn’t send my kids to school THERE” statements particularly funny. Especially because socio-economics is the primary determining factor in how well a child does in school. The reason so many of the schools perform poorly is because the less well off people in the area are sending their children there, while those who have the money opt to send their kids to private/catholic school. A school will only do as well as the parents expect it to. Kinda makes me think about all those UES parents crying about their children being on a waiting list, while the school a few blocks away with all the black/brown faces is underutilized.
” and my own block has gone from one or two white people to 10-12. In that sense the neighborood has indeed diversified.”
Oh yeah – I saw this when I was there in 06 the neighborhood has definitely diversified in the past few years.
Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy are both pleasant places to live that happen to be predominately black (whether it be west indian, or american or whatever) – the two are not mutually exclusive, which is always the impression I get when this ‘diverse’ tag is applied so loosely to places where it doesn’t fit.
Hate to say it, but many of the neighborhoods typically portrayed as white-washed yuppie hell holes (Park Slope, Williamsburg, Greenpoint etc) are more culturally and economically diverse (at least how I understand the definition of the word) than Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy etc. Not taking anything away from either neighborhood. I just really wish this throwing the word ‘diversity’ around fad dies, along with tapas joints and speakeasy cocktail bars.
20thStreet has a good point. Until the public schools in that area improve, Crown Heights will not be a big draw for families. We looked at a great apartment in CH North, but I wouldn’t consider sending my kids to the local school. The people I know who are happy there either don’t have kids, or already have their foothold in a decent school before they move.
The neighborhood is indeed mostly Caribbean, black American and Hasidic folks and has been for some time. That said, there are MANY more non-Hasidic, young white people around Crown Heights than at any time in recent memory. Some are owners, but by my reckoning, the largest percentage are renters. I meet many of them while walking my dog, and my own block has gone from one or two white people to 10-12. In that sense the neighborood has indeed diversified.