Video: An Introduction to Kensington (and Environs)
We came across this video about Kensington produced by Turn Here and thought it was a fun intro for those of you who may not be all that familiar with life on the other side of the park. Kensington Video [YouTube]
We came across this video about Kensington produced by Turn Here and thought it was a fun intro for those of you who may not be all that familiar with life on the other side of the park.
Kensington Video [YouTube]
From the posts on the Kensingtonblog, it appears as though the “I’m here, gentrify already” crowd has as many renters as owners.
Hi k-gal and guest 1:00pm. No offense intended. We found our way to Kensington by happy accident. We needed to move quickly because unstable upstairs neighbors at our old space were making our life hell, and a friend was moving out of her apartment and hooked us up with her landlord. We’re considering buying, and when we do, we plan to stay put for a long time. I can tell you that I’ve heard first hand (on the playground, for example) from people who are anxious about their investment (nothing wrong with that either), moved here with an agenda, and talk in racist code about “safety” in the same breath they talk about “improving the neighborhood.” There’s also a whole lot of complaining on the Kensington blog (coffee, coffee, coffee). Lastly, that “white hot” thing came from a real estate ad that made me laugh, about an apartment “in white hot Kensington!” Certainly I wasn’t addressing you directly, as I don’t know you, and if you are happy in your homes and feel you made a good choice, that’s wonderful. But you can’t deny that there’s an element of “I’m here, gentrify already!” which always has the flavor of racism and classism to me.
copy_gal
We also did not move to Kensington “clutching my checkbook” waiting for the neighborhood to turn “white hot”. We bought here because it was one of the few places we could buy a whole house for the price of a 2 bedroom in our old neighborhood. We wanted a sizeable backyard someplace close enough to the city that the commute wasn’t a complete ordeal. We bought before any of the current new businesses on Cortelyou were open so clearly didn’t move for the amenities. We looked in and considered a lot of neighborhoods and our house was the best house in the most reasonable shape for the price. That’s it- no big plans of cashing out in 5 years. In short, we bought for the exact same reason that 8:03 says the “ethnic people” are here, because it was affordable and not a complete hellhole.
I am truly tired of hearing that anyone who buys in a less popular area is trying to gentrify the neighborhood by buying there. If new businesses come in that appeal to something different than what the older demographic is then maybe I can spend even more money in my own hood rather than taking my dollars elsewhere. It will mean that the older businesses like hardware stores, butchers, etc will receive more foot traffic and $$. Trust me, we have no master plan. Just wanted a decent enough place to live and have found the area’s diversity interesting and the people here nice.
12:20 Although I agree with your overall comments, there is one bone of contention. I moved to the area for all of the same reasons that you did but I purchased an affordable home in lieu of renting not because I believed it was a “white hot” neighborhood. I plan on being here a while, so I am sure that I will recoup at least what I paid for my home at that point. I am not “clutching my checkbook” waiting on gentrification anymore or less than people in the area who moved here for the affordable rents. I would say the same for most of the families that purchased homes in the DITMASINGTON WEST (Ditmas Park/Kensington/West) area.
I live in Kensington (I think, who knows at this point) and I consider the “other side of the park” to be across the park from from Park Slope. Windsor Terrace is on the same side of the Park as Park Slope, so I describe it as “below Park Slope.” We are south of Park Slope (by a bit, certainly not adjacent), but often walk to Lonelyville, and Greenwood Park (we’re New Yorkers — we walk!). We frequent all of the shops on Cortelyou, and some on Church, Ditmas and 18th Avenues. We consider all of this “our neighborhood” and all of the people who live here: white, black, Mexican, Eastern European, Middle Eastern, Asian, hippies, yuppies, hipsters, the aged, and so on, “our neighbors.” I’m amused by the micro division of neighborhoods — you all do know that the “riff-raff” can easily slip the borders, right? We moved here because we could afford a 2-bedroom here, no shame in that. It’s an interesting area, and we like it. We’re parents, and there are many parents here, and most of them seem a bit more relaxed than the folks up on the west side of the park (you know who I mean). We rent, and have no vested interest in gentrification for the sake of increasing property values, although I do think A LOT of people invested here believing it was a “white hot” neighborhood and are waiting on the gentrification while clutching their checkbooks. This dude made this video, I think, for fun. Maybe to show off the places he enjoys. I liked it. Maybe someday it’ll snow again, and we can go sledding with our hoity-toity neighbors to the North. 😉
copy_gal
This video was created because this dude has a lot of free time. But hey, why not? Maybe Ken Burns will like it and offer him a job.
According to the maps I’ve seen, the border between Kensington and Ditmas Park is Coney Island Avenue– and Vox Pop and the Cortelyou shops are on the Ditmas Park side… but not by much. There’s a lot of cross-neighborhood blending in this area though.
Thought the video was entertaining and refreshing– captured a certain joie de vivre one can feel in the area now.
OK, I admit I watched the video twice, but he is annoying. Still wonder why this video was created…
Actually, this video celebrates the most strikingly Kensingtonian thing about Kensington: the fact that no one ever knows quite where it begins and ends, and that folks (especially the New York Times) are always using the “Kensington” tag for any part of Brooklyn they can’t quite place.
Actually, I thought this was loads of fun whatever its little geographical-nomenclature inaccuracies; they’re all places you hit often if you live anywhere around here. And the guy, with his self-conscious and slightly goofy onscreen persona and his potbellied garage band, seemed much more old-school Brooklyn oddball than nouveau gentrifier. Sander Hicks of Vox Pop was the only one who came off annoyingly, with his overeager guilty-white-boy promo for a newsletter that plugs “new African-American and Hispanic businesses,” but even he came off more endearingly a “type” than a genuine pest. The charm of this entire area rests on its polyglot scruffiness, and I thought the film captured that remarkably well, and with a certain sweetness.