When Noah Baumbach Was Young
Think you’re old-school Park Slope? A Facebook group called Thirty Something and Grew Up in Park Slope has gained about 500 members since it was started six months ago. As per The Times this morning: “At the time, Park Slope had enough families that it could be a haven for children, but it was far…
Think you’re old-school Park Slope? A Facebook group called Thirty Something and Grew Up in Park Slope has gained about 500 members since it was started six months ago. As per The Times this morning: “At the time, Park Slope had enough families that it could be a haven for children, but it was far from child-proofed, providing an ideal environment for the heightened sensory experiences that kids never forget.” Which is how Gothamist founder Jake Dobkin, shown at left in the PS 321 playground, got to be such a tough guy!
Santa –
I’ve put 3 kids through 321 and and now public middle schools. They certainly did not receive a Noah Baumbach childhood, as much as I would have liked it. The leftist leaning, self-absorbed intellectuals that allowed their children to roam free in a gentrifying (rather than gentrified) neighborhood are few and far between. Giant child-safety bars surround Park Slope for better or worse. I’m not saying it’s a bad place to raise children by any means, but it’s not the same neighborhood it was in the 70 and 80s…
Ditmas Park? Kensington? Jackson Heights?
Born in Brooklyn, raised in Brooklyn, Work in Brooklyn.
I love Brooklyn.
I used to get my Star War figures from Al’s Toy Land in the early 80’s, they always seemed get them in before the other toy stores, and I was coming up from Cobble Hill.
Not quite 30 yet but grew up in the neighborhood and remember well the days of Al’s Toy Land. I miss the corner sicilian slice from Bens Pizza, a lost neighborhood treasure.
Architerrorist has obviously never been to a brooklyn public school.
I grew up here and recognize people from the pictures–pretty cool! Ah, the days of Al’s toyland!
whenever im walking around the neighborhood and see kids the first thing i think is lucky bastards. haha.
-rob
Thay all do! Our daughter was raised here – on the edge of downtown Brooklyn. Pierpont park, PS 321, the Mom and Pop stores that used be on Smith and the men who played dominos all day, indoor soccer, Pete’s ice cream on Atlantic — they are all great memories for her and the kids she grew up with. And the kids growing up here now will have different ones. None better or worse — just different.
So which Brooklyn neighborhoods, if any, provide that sort of experience now?