Wrapping up what will heretofore be known as class warfare week on Brownstoner…We followed Set Speed’s post on Tuesday about the punk rock ass crack phenomenon (huh?) and wound up reading this excerpt from Hip Hop Diary that was written back in February in response to the Clinton Hill profile in the Times:

If the median income in this area is a bit over 40 grand, and the median price for a small-ass condo is half a million and it’s over a million for buildings, who’s buying property here now? And what does that bode for the neighborhood’s celebrated “economic and cultural diversity?” You know what I see when I walk around here now? Tons of not-exactly-fresh-outta-high school Pratt students (getting an MFA must be the same as getting an MBA was 20 years ago). Rich white dads with baby backpacks. People standing in front of the Clinton-Washington stop asking for directions to Myrtle Avenue. Nannys wheeling children in expensive strollers. And lots and lots of Volvos. They’re already swarming. I’ve gotta get out of here.

Comment: Hey, don’t look at us, we’ve got a used Subaru.
Biggie Shoulda Been Buying Real Estate [Hip Hop Diary]
Recurring Ass Crack Theme [Set Speed]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

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  1. Are you, Big Bubba, the same real estate bubba that has been getting so much media attention lately? I’m tired of hearing, “Is it a bubba?” or “When do you think the Bubba is going to burst?”
    or “How do you know it’s a bubba to begin with.” Now I hear you are confused and going out drinking.

  2. Ok, this really is getting to be a stupid discussion. Also, I think somebody’s attributing some stuff to me, that I think some other poster said.

    I’m too confused to follow the thread anymore. Time to get drink. Later folks.

  3. Bubba –

    Thanks for the geography lesson, but I live in Carroll Gardens.

    I never said it was a bonus to live near the projects, only that to dismiss a neighborhood because a friggin satellite photo shows some nearby was crazy.

    And your high level analysis that there is more crime in the projects than in the surrounding neighborhood is right on the mark – do have access to COMPSTAT or did you figure than one out all by yourself?

  4. Bubba –
    I get it but what I dont get is an attitude where a neighborhood is going down if people who have more “than a pot to piss in” and who have 2 parents working (i.e. need for a Nanny)move in – Personally I avoid neighborhoods where no has a pot and (therefore must piss everywhere).

  5. I once refused to buy a house because it was right across from the Gowanus Projects. Yup, I’m guilty as charged.

    See, I grew up in and around projects. You couldn’t pay me to look out my window at those projects every day.

  6. Oh come on now, you know as well as I do that “rich” is such a relative thing. Maybe the white-dad-volvo guy is just middle class in your eyes, but if you don’t got a pot to piss in, then he’s rich by comparison.

    Is that really so difficult to grok?

  7. Bored – glad your happy but 1. If you live 1 block from the Gowanus Houses you live in Boreum Hill not Carrol Gardens and 2. You might not get a flavor for you neighborhood looking at a map, but if you think living next those projects is a bonus you are delusional. Again I am not trying to insult you and I am glad that you are happy but in terms of crime – Gowanus and Wycoff Houses are crime ridden when compared with the surrounding neighborhood.

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