The Times of London Singing Bed Stuy's Praises
It sounds like London Times writer James Doran got quite a deal on his Bedford Stuyvesant brownstone. Given how well-preserved all the details were, $600,000 sounds undermarket to us. And what a great provenance! The story he tells of the former owner, a brewery heiress, is great stuff. The Heath Ledger angle might be a…
It sounds like London Times writer James Doran got quite a deal on his Bedford Stuyvesant brownstone. Given how well-preserved all the details were, $600,000 sounds undermarket to us. And what a great provenance! The story he tells of the former owner, a brewery heiress, is great stuff. The Heath Ledger angle might be a bit of a stretch but, hey, Doran’s at least setting the newspaper-reading public straight about the neighborhood which has caught more than its share of bad press over the years:
Bed-Stuy is more than just an incredible investment opportunity for an adventurous property speculator: it is one of the most fascinating neighbourhoods of New York, steeped in history and close to Manhattan’s sleepless streets, yet no tourist ever sets foot here.
Local blog Bed Stuy Gateway had this to say about the article: Is The Times doing a Lenten penance for the smackdown of an article it published on June 25, 2005 in which reporter Dominic Rushe called Bed-Stuy “a horrible and inconvenient area of Brooklyn with some lovely buildings and a nasty crack habit”?
Big Apple’s Core Appeal [London Times]
The Brits Are Coming [Bed Stuy Gateway]
NY has an enormous prison population that is why we have lower crime. People aren’t more law abiding now.
The NY Times had an interesting article about convicts and excons with map showing where there last place of residence was before being locked up in prison.
The convicts hailed from neighborhoods east of Flatbush Ave. BedStuy/CrownHeights/Bushwick/Brownsville
/EastNY/ProspectLefferts/East Flatbush.
There are many good law abiding moral people in these areas. They are safer now but our prisons are extremely overcrowded.
Ok let’s get real now i am a Police officer in the 84th pct and there were 75 gun shots calls last month alone so whoever is saying they do not hear gun shots are not listening hard enough, or possibly they have the radio turned up all day.
James,
I have never been the victim of or witnessed a violent crime in Bed Stuy, where I do not live. I also have never been the victim of or witnessed a violent crime in Park Slope, where I have lived more than a dozen years.
Therefore, there is no violent crime in Park Slope, and has not been for more than a decade.
In response to Anonymous 1:43pm, I’d like to say that many Americans have an unduly rose-tinted view of life in the UK. Over the past 20 years, there has been a tremendous increase there in random violence and vandalism — much of which goes unreported to the local police. I realize I run the risk of sounding like an outraged-in-Cheltenham old fart (the Brits will understand this reference) but it’s becoming more and more of an issue over there. New York City is certainly gritty but on my block I worry more about litter than street crime. Perhaps because the cops here have a heavy hand or because the city has some intangible, intrinsic menace people seem more cautious about acting out. I don’t know the reason. I’m just very aware that the NYC feels relatively safe too me while much of the UK feels less and less that way.
has anoyone contributing to this debate ever actually been the victim of a violent crime in bed stuy or directly witnessed a violent crime in bed stuy — Im not takling about the news, or the statistics, but in day to day life
Straight question, just asking
Dave
When you say “I am safer in Bed Stuy than I was living in London or growing up in a small town on the South Coast of England.”
If you are talking about crime Unless you were involved in some high risk activity in UK or you stay inside all day here in Brooklyn – it is a factually false statement. You may feel safer but on every violent crime statistic London is lower (pre capita) than Bed-Stuy.
This is not to knock Bed-Stuy, but happy personal annecdotes alone do not paint a complete picture of any area.
veggieburger,
You’ve made the don’t-speak-ill-of-other-Brooklyn-nabes argument here before, and while I’m sure you have the best intentions, I think you’re absolutely wrong. The ethics of stifling our negative opinions aside, if this blog became an uncritical booster site dedicated to puffing up all our neighborhoods, it would lose all credibility, and rightly so.
There are trolls here, but I think most of us, even if we disagree, make an honest effort to call it like we see it, about our own neighborhoods and others. I also think most of us — myself included — are biased about our own hoods, which is why I think people who don’t live in Park Slope have every right to criticize Park Slope here. I may not agree with them, but they just may be right.
David said above that he gets annoyed when people minimize the problems in his (and my) neighborhood. If even people who live here, and have a stake in Brooklyn, are put off by boosterism, you can bet people from elsewhere will see right through it.
Hi James,
My wife and I also lived in Brixton, small world 🙂
We are on Decatur between Ralph & Howard.
I’ll pass my email address onto brownstoner perhaps we can exchange contact and meet for a beer.
All the best to you.
Dave
Yet another Brit-in-Brooklyn, I’m afraid. But really, living in Prospect Heights — where I greet my neighbors every day and chat over the front railings in clement weather — I feel much safer than in London, where there may be far fewer guns but there are also many more aggressive drunks on the streets after the pubs close. But JAMES, here’s the important question: what’s with that extraordinary stove/fire grate? Please, more details!