Park Slope Stroller Nazi Story Getting a Little Stale
We’re not exactly sure why this was a front-page article the the NY Times Sunday Real Estate section—seems more like City section material to us—but, there it was, another article making light of the number of strollers (and implicit bourgeois existence of their pushers) in Park Slope. The fact that there are a lot of…
We’re not exactly sure why this was a front-page article the the NY Times Sunday Real Estate section—seems more like City section material to us—but, there it was, another article making light of the number of strollers (and implicit bourgeois existence of their pushers) in Park Slope. The fact that there are a lot of young families (some of whose matriarchs aren’t averse to a little public nursing) in Park Slope just ain’t news anymore, so let’s just settle the fight for the soul of the slope once and for all in the hopes that another article never has to be written on the subject. In the words of The Times article, is Park Slope “Hipster Hell” or “Parent Heaven”? Update: As of 4:30 today, there were 216 votes for Parent Heaven and 158 votes for Hipster Hell.
The Park Slope Parent Trap [NY Times]
Photo by Kansas Liberal
David-
You could have easily chosen Clinton Hill or Ft. Greene or Brooklyn Heights or Greenpoint or Sunset Park or Bay Ridge or any other neighborhood, but you chose to specifically (not theoretically) use Bed Stuy as the testbed for your exercise and you come across as classist and racist by choosing a neighborhood that is A) primarily African American and B) historically poor and then illustrating it with racial/class stereotypes and geographical inaccuracies which give me the impression you don’t even know where Bed Stuy begins and ends.
I’m not saying you ARE racist or classist, since I don’t know you. I’m just saying it’s how you come across and it doesn’t do justice to the good people of Park Slope.
haters go home!
This is great. I have been lurking all morning but had to put my two cents in. SOMETIMES stroller pushing mommys piss me off. Sometimes they have a nice smile and they realize that they are sharing the sidewalk with me. SOMETIMES I hate W-Burg hipsters with their skinny jeans and aversion to admitting that anything is worth their interest. Sometimes I like talking to hipster guy at the Gowanus Yacht Club about how Doug Martsch is God-Like. SOMETIMES i hate myself for getting too drunk and falling asleep in my clothes. Mostly Im pretty happy that I live in Brooklyn….
I hate everybody.
Why is everybody against ME?
ME ME ME.
They don’t understand me because I am a misunderstood genius and way more enlightened than everybody else?
Brenda: how do you know who is an “actual mom”?
“I understand the theoretical exercise value of your 11:37 post, but it really reveals a whole SLEW of class issues on your part doesn’t it?” – PS Curmudgeon
Actually no and if you actually did understand the THEORETICAL exercise of my post then you wouldn’t make two contradictory conclusions within 1 sentence.
Seems like this “boring” story has more than a bit of life left in it.
I always find it a little scary when people (like the Times author) talk about moving to someplace (the Slope, the ‘burbs, wherever) to “breed.” They used to call it “raising a family,” and it was pretty much what humans did. Now the “choice” (ah, that word) seems to have turned into a polarizing and self-conscious act of urban geopolitics, at least for our more blessed-with-affluence crowd. Kind of sad.
Oh, and did anyone notice the huge missing piece in the Times article? The preponderance, not of these much-maligned moms, but of nannies! I often go blocks without seeing a single stroller pushed by an actual mom; the nannies appear to have their own cliques and hierarchies, too. Guess that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms. Prepare for another 84 posts.
12:11 –
Whadda ya think they do in Scotland?
And it’s not even hot there.
12:18, no! That’s not it! I don’t want to wear pumps. 12:20, you’re going a little over my head right now, and I respect that.