The Times Gives It Up For Alterna-Slopes
The Times had a case of Brooklyn fever this weekend, taking some precious column inchage to profile two neighborhoods that most readers of The Gray Lady probably hadn’t heard of until recently, Windsor Terrace and Prospect Lefferts Gardens. The subjects of the Windsor Terrace article, a couple who were pleased as punch to land a…
The Times had a case of Brooklyn fever this weekend, taking some precious column inchage to profile two neighborhoods that most readers of The Gray Lady probably hadn’t heard of until recently, Windsor Terrace and Prospect Lefferts Gardens. The subjects of the Windsor Terrace article, a couple who were pleased as punch to land a four-bedroom house in the nabe last year for $999,000, had this to say about how their new home stacked up versus the Slope: It’s a little less precious over here, and a little more real. We kind of like that.” (The director of the Jack Nicholson flick As Good As It Gets thought it was unprecious enough to cast one of the houses above on Fuller Place as Helen Hunt’s working-class digs. The idea that these places are now within reach of people with working-class incomes is, of course, laughable.) Despite initial concern about the “clusters of young men hanging out on some of the street corners,” the star of the PLG article ultimately was won over by the area’s racial diversity and proximity to Prospect Park, snapping up a small Victorian house just outside the historic district for $240,000 back in 2002. She now shares the house with her 11-year-old daughter, her brother and his wife.
Less ‘Precious’ Than the Slope? Certainly Cheaper [NY Times]
A Wished-For House With a Hideaway Nook [NY Times]
Photo by redxdress
I am anon @ 2:00. For your information, I’ve lived on Maple St. for about the past seven years. Sorry to disappoint you.
I really hope “anon. 2:00” doesn’t live in my neighborhood–with friends like that, who needs enemies? 🙂
Anon. 10:57,
You wrote “Also I think that it [Park Slope]never really hit rock bottom like Ft. Greene or some other Brownstone hoods also make a difference”.
ALL the Brooklyn brownstone neighborhoods except the Heights could be said to have hit “rock bottom” by the late’50s. In 1975, right after moving into my house in PLG, I took a New School course on the brownstones of NYC with Everett Ortner. Everett, along with his late wife Evelyn, are among the people who can be credited with bringing Park Slope “back from the dead” [his words, IIRC]. Ortner dated the “brownstone revival”as having started in the late ’50s, when young “urban pioneers”, priced out of relatively affluent Brooklyn Heights, crossed Atlantic Avenue to buy and restore homes in that slum called “Cobble Hill.” How easily we forget! (BTW, the publication Ortner started–still published sporatically–is called “The Brownstoner”).
Bg, anytime you feel like criticizing PLG to my face, I will gladly take you apart at the joints. Anytime.
BG,
While I can (politely) disagree with your opinion of PLG, I have no problem with your post. There are brownstone areas I wouldn’t want to live in either. Our lists of desirable and undesirable nabes would probably differ–no big deal.
Eryximachus,
Ived never agreed with any of your posts but I respect your intellegence and the clarity with which you state your views. That’s why I’m surprised by your statement about “proximate housing projects” in PLG. That statement is simply not correct–there are NO housing projects in the neighborhood.
You also write about there being “too many enormous rent-stabilized apartment buildings.” There IS the large Patio Gardens complex (which is, possibly the “housing project” you referred to, although that is hardly an accurate description). Other then that, there are many six-story pre-war apartment buildings–medium sized IMO–I wouldn’t describe a 50–60 apartment building as enormous.
I have been amazed, in recent years, by the number of young middle class people, white and black, who have been moving into these buildings. This is something that, frankly, I never expected to see. It is no secret that lack of “services” has long been a problem here. IMO this was because the middle class population, in the largely single-family houses, wasn’t large enough to support upscale businesses. The changes in the apartment buildings are likely to have a major impact in that area. You may very well disagree–perhaps you could do so without resorting to such pejorative terms as “bad news” to describe our neighborhood.
One last thing–Anon 9:38,
PLG, WT, And Vic’t Flatbush are hardly in competition. What builds one historic neighborhood helps them all.
Oh, and I almost forgot the biggest bennie of WT, street parking! Even though I actually have a parking space, it does my heart good to walk from the subway to my building and see all the empty street spots, bless their hearts.
Bottom line: If you refer to your neighborhood as “a little less precious” and “a little more real,” you are a little less real and a little more precious.
While I agree that we shouldn’t be “bashing” neighborhoods, I disagree with the implicit message that all areas are fine and we should all be happy to live in any of them. I would happily live in Windsor Terrace, but after spending lots of time there I have no interest in living in Lefferts Manor or PLG. It just isn’t for me. I’m not bashing it, I’m just being honest about where I want to live and to raise my family. The fact is that each area is different and everyone has a different threshold for what they are comfortable with. We should all be free to express that (politely) without be branded as bashers.