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
Slightly off topic — I’m an enthusiastic lurker moved to post because people are using phrases like “working class” and “middle class,” and I suddenly realize that I have no idea what those phrases mean vis a vis Brooklyn. What kind of dual income ranges are we talking about? What bracket qualifies as “working” or “middle” or “upper middle” in this real estate market?
I’m a born and raised Brooklynite (Gravesend/Kings Highway area), former resident of the South Slope for 10 years, and current new resident of Windsor Terrace. What I love about WT is that its residents remind me of the good folk I grew up with, but also is experiencing gentrification benefits from the radiating Slope. I agree that in a few years, it may be alot less “real”, but that may also mean an increase in property values, which enabled me to cash out of the Slope and buy a larger place in WT in the first place.
Who cares where other people live?
Sheesh.
Just be glad you aren’t 35 and living with your parents in Park Slope like I do. I am unable to function without all the necessary Park Slope amenities like my mom doing my laundry and buying me sushi.
Oh, and I went to ps 321 way back when the neighborhood was bottoming out and it was still awesome.
Silly suggestion, bashing Manhattan. Everyone knows we’re supposed to bash the SUBURBS!
Yes 11:38, PS and all adjacent neighborhoods were gritty and crime ridden during those years, late 60’s-70’s…
As a matter of fact, the entire city
was in terrible shape.
Double digit inflation, lots of folks out of work… not a good time at all.
Many areas, now popular in Brooklyn, were “Red Lined” districts…
Creative folks with a vision, (and not that much money) combined with a “roll up your sleeves” attitude brought these areas back… they invested their precious dollars and energies into resurrecting and restoring
these abandoned but lovely neighborhoods,while I might add, being called “fools” by many skeptics who were very down on all of Brooklyn.
So no one should be bashing any area in Brooklyn… the health and safety of all of our Brooklyn neighhoods is so linked…
No need to bash any neighborhoods including Manhattan. A lot of people have life in Manhattan as we do in Brooklyn. Just be happy where you live.
i am 11:15. i agree…all of these neighborhoods are fantastic! i’ve recently bought my first place this last year…a studio in park slope and couldn’t be happier. it’s definitely home to me and i feel incredibly lucky to live here. all of these neighborhoods…Windsor Terrace, Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill, Ft. Greene, Ditmas are incredible. We are very lucky to live in brooklyn at this time in my opinion, and after spending 7 years living in manhattan i dread even going to work there now. i’m just so freakin in love with brooklyn. all the neighborhood rivalry is silly. anyone need a publicist for brooklyn?
ha.
I agree 11:15. I am an ex-park sloper who moved to Ditmas because I couldn’t afford what I wanted in Park Slope at the time. I would have bought there and would have been very happy. I didn’t – and now am very happy where I am with no intention of leaving although my finances would now allow me to. I could also see being happy in Windsor Terrace or Lefferts. I don’t understand all the bashing. They are all incredibly neighborhoods in their own ways. Instead of bashing other Brooklyn neighborhoods, lets all get together and bash Manhattan 😉 Kidding!
I’m a perfect example, 11:15. A few years ago I decided it was time to leave PS for newer pastures. And it’s funny because I explicitly had PLG and Ditmas in mind as potential places to go. I ended up going to Ditmas because the right place came along at the right time, but I could easily have ended up in PLG, congratulate those who have ended up there, and agree with earlier posters that the futures of these two areas are profoundly connected.