Jeffries v. Broker on Neighborhood Names
Today The Brooklyn Paper ran an op-ed from Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries about why he’s introducing a bill to formalize the process of naming neighborhoods as well as one from a Rapid Realty broker named Lanishia Goodwin about why she supports new neighborhood handles. From Jeffries’ piece: “The consequences of realtors providing misleading information are broad….
Today The Brooklyn Paper ran an op-ed from Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries about why he’s introducing a bill to formalize the process of naming neighborhoods as well as one from a Rapid Realty broker named Lanishia Goodwin about why she supports new neighborhood handles. From Jeffries’ piece: “The consequences of realtors providing misleading information are broad. Working families are pushed out of rebranded neighborhoods as housing prices soar. Newer residents pay more to rent or buy, largely as a result of the deceptive marketing. This is why I plan to introduce the Neighborhood Integrity Act. This bill will require the city to develop a community-oriented process before brokers can rebrand a neighborhood or redefine its boundaries simply for commercial purposes. These new names rarely result from community input and are often disconnected from a neighborhood’s history, culture or tradition.” Meanwhile, Goodwin has this to say, in part: “In Brooklyn, even familiar names are nicknames for other neighborhoods. Prospect Lefferts Gardens was borrowed from a group of buildings in the Prospect Heights neighborhood, What about Ocean Hill and Kensington? They’re really Flatbush. And what about Stuyvesant Heights? Most of the owners of the million-dollar real estate in this historical area grew up there won’t argue that it’s Bedford-Stuyvesant…Brooklyn as a whole has also become such prime real estate—there are so many people moving farther and farther into Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, and Bushwick—that it can no longer defined by just prime neighborhoods.”
Jeffries: Neighborhood Integrity Matters [BK Paper]
Goodwin: New Names Help Brooklyn Grow [BK Paper]
I live in an exclusive part of Fort Greene called “Camel Park”. You can only say you live there if you can see the “camel” from your windows or front door. So there!
Thanks for the history MM.
quote:
“Long story long”
alolz..
*rob*
I wish people would do some research before they make pronouncements. Lanishia Goodwin is wrong on a number of assertions. Here’s some history:
The name “Bedford Stuyvesant” is the combination of two communities, Bedford and Stuyvesant Hts. The village of Bedford or originally Bedford Corners, has been around since the Dutch built a tavern on a crossroads in 1670. It played an important role in the American Revolution and the Battle of Brooklyn, in 1776.
Stuyvesant Heights evolved from real estate development in the 1880’s, as an upper class enclave. Both names show up in the Eagle from around that time. Bedford actually included parts of present day Clinton Hill and much of Crown Heights North. The first appearance of “Bedford Stuyvesant” was in the 1930’s, first used by Brooklyn Union Gas or Con Ed to describe the area. When the area became predominantly black, starting in the 1950’s and 60’s, Bedford Stuyvesant became the catch all phrase for most of central Brooklyn. Of course Stuy Hts people know they are part of BS, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a perfectly legit neighborhood name.
Crown Heights has been around since the turn of the 20th century. Originally, it meant the area centered around Eastern Parkway, going south until Flatbush, and east and west, encompassing most of Prospect Heights. Present day Crown Heights North was considered Bedford until the turn of the 20th century, when the name “St. Marks District” was coined, probably by real estate concerns, for the extremely wealthy area around St. Marks Avenue.
Crow Hill, too, was a bit more south than it is now, and originally meant the area around the Brooklyn Penitentiary, near Bedford, Eastern Parkway, Union. The “crows” referred to the prisoners in their striped uniforms, often in chain gangs working on the streets nearby, as well as the actual birds which hung around the prison. There was a poor black enclave there, and the name was also had derogatory jab at them.
Long story long, I think Jeffries has some good points, but to be fair, community sub names, coined by real estate concerns, have also given us names we cherish now, as well as more modern ones we hate. I think some compromise will have to be made somewhere in the middle.
‘i dont see it that way at all. i just see it as her not liking snooty annoying people with too much money moving in and trying to reinvent the wheel.’
bullshit. jeffries is on the record saying that gentrification is the biggest problem facing his district (was linked to in last thread on here)
i find it pretty freakin insulting if i was to move crown heights or bed stuy that someone who is elected to represent ME would view me as a PROBLEM rather than the other numerous quality of life issues he could be addressing that would make everyone safer.
Go Hakeem Jeffries!!!
it’s illegal to not like snooty people with too much money?
ugh, well sentence me now i guess!
*rob*
BHS- MM can answer that better than I,but I did say names do change over time. But certainly not as a cynical marketing ploy by a real estate agent to fool people into thinking they’re someplace they aren’t.
“i dont see it that way at all. i just see it as her not liking snooty annoying people with too much money moving in and trying to reinvent the wheel”.
That is actually illegal and of course it is a racial issue, what is not a racial issue in this part of Brooklyn.