Our Borough, Ourselves
For the past month the Observer’s been running a weekly column called “Brooklyn, the Borough.” Each installment is a first-person account written by Nicole Brydson, who grew up in Manhattan and did some time in Greenpoint and Hell’s Kitchen before recently settling in Prospect Heights. In grand old Observer fashion, the column sorta reads like…
For the past month the Observer’s been running a weekly column called “Brooklyn, the Borough.” Each installment is a first-person account written by Nicole Brydson, who grew up in Manhattan and did some time in Greenpoint and Hell’s Kitchen before recently settling in Prospect Heights. In grand old Observer fashion, the column sorta reads like “Sex and the City,” but instead of bed-hopping and social climbing the focus is one woman’s quest to identify herself via her new borough. Here’s what Brydson’s learned so far:
Lesson 1: Finding the right neighborhood is tough. Williamsburg=”hupsters.” Park Slope=”pretentious mommy-daddy colony.” Fort Greene=”just about perfect,” but a little too pricey. Prospect Heights=True love, at the right price.
Lesson 2: It’s possible to decorate on the cheap. Getting gear from Lowe’s and IKEA is all well and good, but how ’bout that beige carpet from the sidewalk? “So far, no bed bugs!”
Lesson 3: Gentrification is a bitch. “I feel destined to simultaneously be gentrified and gentrifying, but to most people I just look like the new white girl on the block.”
Lesson 4: Don’t expect sanity from a real estate agent who asks you to sign a lease on the hood of her Jag.
Looking forward to more!
Escaping Hupsters for New Prospects [Observer]
An Electric Boyfriend Works the New Apartment [Observer]
Destined to Be Gentrified and Gentrifying [Observer]
My Angel Gave Me Hell [Observer]
No it’s not, 1:39.
That’s absurd.
Pull out some stats, if you really believe that.
I brought a thermos of cocktails from that PH thread from yesterday!
Please, enough PH bashing. Fort Greene is the wild west compared to PH. We have always been something of a satellite to PS but PH is much better and safer than FG.
“If you guys were all so cool and laid back and authentic, you wouldn’t be snarking your brains out on this website all day long.”
And YOU read brownstoner because….???
Every blog on the internet has snarky comments like this, 1:30. It has nothing to do with how people behave in real life.
NOTHING.
Are you 80 or just plain stupid?
Good news, everyone! I dashed over to one of the CG threads and stole two dozen fresh cannolis! Plus, I got my tattoo artist friend to offer complimentary Anime Tattoos!
Buh bye!
I’m back to let you all know again, I’ve left Brooklyn and am never coming back! It’s an uptight place. Park Slope is uptight. The posts on this site offer ample evidence of it. Brooklyn was once a refuge from uptight Manhattan, but in some ways it’s more uptight now, perhaps because people are still fighting about establishing the basic pecking order. Whatever the reason, it’s a snarky, uptight, unpleasant scene. If you guys were all so cool and laid back and authentic, you wouldn’t be snarking your brains out on this website all day long. But the one thing you can all agree on is that the latest wave of Manhattan people that have emigrated to Brooklyn are know-nothing and lame. (And that’s true.) But what else is true is that you have become intolerable as well. And so that’s why it’s time to say goodbye.
Yes something did hit home – I once was the kid that usually finished ‘last’ and was ostricised and my Parents made sure to tell me I lost and finished last (as you suggested) and it made me feel like shit and to have a low self-esteem.
FYI – what I did to compensate was to workout like crazy and then go around and find closeted judgmental gay men to beat the shit out of – it did wonders to boost my self confidence.