Fort Greene: City's Best Nabe?
Trying to crown one neighborhood as New York City’s best is kind of a silly exercise, but if you were to concentrate on the criteria of culture, community, diversity and architecture, there certainly is a good case to be made for Fort Greene. “In all my days and nights of walking neighborhoods and asking people…
Trying to crown one neighborhood as New York City’s best is kind of a silly exercise, but if you were to concentrate on the criteria of culture, community, diversity and architecture, there certainly is a good case to be made for Fort Greene. “In all my days and nights of walking neighborhoods and asking people why they live where they live, I have never encountered a place that has this much heart, soul and pride,” write Daily News correspondent Jason Sheftell. “More than ever, I found people who said they could never live anywhere else but right here.” Unfortunately for those just hearing about Fort Greene’s charms, the days of finding a real estate deal are long gone (though they may return soon enough!), but it’s still worth it. (The writer naively claims that the Brooklyn nabe is as expensive as the West Village. Not!) People here do not like any fakeness in their neighborhood and they pay higher rents for that, said Denis DuPreez, co-owner of the Dekalb Avenue restaurant Madiba. We have beauty, and we have the good people. It’s hard to argue with that.
Fort Greene: The best neighborhood in New York? [NYDN]
Photo by atomische.com
“Not to put a damper on the FG love fest, but on my way home from work this evening (around 7:30pm) I walked by a violent-looking mugging on the corner of Clermont and Lafayette. The victim, a guy walking home from work it appeared, was screaming while being pounded by a group of young men. Didn’t look iPod related. There were about 10 cop cars at the scene within seconds.”
Gee, 1980’s or earlier allover again? No matter the race of the perps. So many things have changed, others don’t.
Wonder what the newbie’s will say?
“i just want all the haters out there who are white to raise their hands. that is the true story on whether you like fort greene. most white people who live in park white slope, cobble cracker hill, boerum project hill or brooklyn whites, hate fort greene. too many colored people right, too many black artists, interesting people? if you hate us all, i am a black woman, why don’t you leave the US because guess what, a BLACK man runs your country. sure we have problems, but our diversity is our strength and people get mugged every day on park avenue but you haters never ever mention it, why is that?”
OK, this B.S. isn’t gonna sit with me any longer. I, a white male, was in the ‘nabe since 1987, my while better half, since 1982. Please do not pull the “race card” here.
Part of the reason, I have stated above, that why new African Americans were coming BACK to to the “white flight” (and the redo of the ‘hood by a mix of all cultures late ’70’s through ’00’s”) of the 1960’s (er, if no one has pointed this out, the ‘hood was solid Irish American middle class til WWII), was the fact is was a mixed neighborhood.
Not any longer from an economic standpoint.
So don’t bait (as I realize you are) with cracker comments and such. While always a rough ‘nabe for the “other folks” in the beginning (1980’s white, Latino, Asian, other), once you proved you were “here to stay” you made lots of friends and had “props” in the ‘nabe.
So no more racial BS, shows you are new to Ft. Greene. Part of the reason I vacated.
Diversity only comes in bonuses or stimulus payouts these days in the ‘hood. You are welcome to it.
Not that there’s anything wrong with nannies, it just makes the playgrounds and playgroups different from what I had gotten used to. Somewhat.
Hey, girl, I feel more alienated from most of the white residents. For one thing, they allllll have nannies. For another, they buy $2MM brownstones, yet want to raise their kids in a “diverse” neighborhood, but aren’t “diverse” enough to consider PS 20 or 11.
And also, I feel like they are judging my cabon footprint by our trail of fresh direct and amazon prime boxes.
Not to put a damper on the FG love fest, but on my way home from work this evening (around 7:30pm) I walked by a violent-looking mugging on the corner of Clermont and Lafayette. The victim, a guy walking home from work it appeared, was screaming while being pounded by a group of young men. Didn’t look iPod related. There were about 10 cop cars at the scene within seconds.
I forgot to add earlier:
“And I wouldn’t write your old neighborhood off so fast. I’m sure if someone left you her brownstone in her will, you’d come back to Fort Greene in a heartbeat, no?”
NO! Happy in my wee-frame house, more mixed neighbors and lower property taxes 🙂
I’d rent it out and roll in the cash 😉
Thanks bxgrl. Room will be waiting once I get my stimulus $$ 😉
We were happy to see folks move in in the early “00’s” and begin to redo home (but at such a price, geeze) and the Ft. Greene, for the most part, has been spared the “tear down, build up” of South Brooklyn and other ‘nabes.
People are people, but vibe and attitude count as well.
When a Brownstone with 4 apts reverts back to a single family with a family, very cool. When that family’s annual income is 10X what the 4 renters was, then we have a change in the vibe of the ‘nabe. Simple logistics.
Again, live and let live. I’ll stay south, others can have the north.
Hey A.J.- don’t forget when you and the wife move to Mexico, you have a room for me :-). But i can understand how you feel.
All neighborhoods do change, but maybe the thing we feel so much is the loss of character in the neighborhood. Seems the trendier they get, the more alike they get, and all the depth and richness of the people who lived there, the odd little businesses where they know your name and you can get all those odd foods and cultural paraphernalia just disappear.And all the characters that gave the community so much flavor.Sometimes i wonder what society will be like when all the imagination and creativity is copyrighted by Disney, and every neighborhood is a bland (but trendy!) echo of every other?
Hey BrooklynGreene no need for apologies here we love FG as well and thanks for the input. We are looking for a 2 family ideally but will settle for other configurations especially fixer uppers. We been obsessively combing thru all the FG listings but the # houses for sale is very limited plus prices have decreased only minimally. Thanks again and remember us if you hear anything…Know anything about “that” S Oxford Place?
Fexley thanks a lot but we went to the 1st open house for 13 S Elliot place and indeed it is a GUT renovation with every floor totally destroyed from mold and absolute neglect. We are willing to go thru such a massive project but the narrowness of the house is what we couldn’t overcome..only 16ft wide and more like 12 feet on the inside palor floor. The price is also still high given that it needs $800K of work to bring it up to code. Anyways thanks again,
PDT.