Boerum Hill Open House Tonight
If you’ve got nothing better to do tonight, you can stop by the open house at 447 Pacific Street in Boerum Hill from 6 to 7:30. There’s not much in the way of pictures to go on, so we can’t do much more than parrot the listing: Traditional lower duplex with grape leaf moldings, pocket…
If you’ve got nothing better to do tonight, you can stop by the open house at 447 Pacific Street in Boerum Hill from 6 to 7:30. There’s not much in the way of pictures to go on, so we can’t do much more than parrot the listing: Traditional lower duplex with grape leaf moldings, pocket doors, and marble mantles, all in a two bedroom unit with an open kitchen, washer & dryer, and private land-scaped garden topped by a more modern upper duplex with cathedral ceilinged living room, newly redone kitchen, a large skylight, wood burning fireplace, 2 bedrooms plus a den or home office. Price? $1.7 million.
447 Pacific Street [NYT Listings] GMAP
This story was well publicized in the NYT, local tv news, and NY1 over more than one day. So I don’t know why people “just heard of it”. There is more to news than CNN.com …
The fact that a shooting in a project even made the news is news (cynical comment). It’s only because of the baby element. If it was just gang on gang violence, you wouldn’t of heard of it.
So the innoncent bystander type murder is in fact very rare outside of known drug-trafficing areas, and it’s misleading that’s we’re using this example to discuss it’s effect on the safety in Boerum Hill.
Sloper, where did you find that description of the boundaries? It soudns right to me, except I would have said that State street was the northern most boundary (meaning both sides of the street).
As a Boerum hill resident for 7 and a half years (and a Park Slope resident well before that) I can comment on this chain to the following extent:
I agree that it is important to note that Boerum Hill will always have these substantial public housing “anchors” to its neighborhood, but at the same time I don’t believe the shooting incident near them is typical at all of Boerum Hill or, indeed, Brooklyn.
Also, although it is true Pacific is more than three blocks away from the Gardens, these are short blocks on a well trafficked path from the Fulton Mall/Flatbush/Downtown Brooklyn area and not the long block(s) that separate Cobble Hill spatially from the Gowanus Houses.
As a general rule, both the Wyckoff Gardens and the Gowanus Houses are much safer than they were in the early 1990’s, but Wyckoff Gardens has always had a worse reputation for crime. (It was also the scene of the last vignette in the movie Smoke, for those who have seen that movie.)
As for what is the boundary of Boerum Hill, it is a tough call (as is often the case in NY neighborhoods) but generally I have always thought the bonudary between Boerum Hill and Park Slope was 4th Avenue. The problem is that south of Atlantic Avenue the blocks east of Nevins Street are not consistently residential, but include substantial commercial/light industrial properties. I could understand why people might start trying to exclude certain blocks because of these properties from the neighborhood, but I don’t think that would be accurate.
Finally, no one has commented on the price. $1.7 sounds a tad high for Pacific. I know that some places have gone for that amount on other blocks in the Boerum Hill area, but I doubt if a townhouse three doors down from Nevins and backing on to that very large building on the corner of Atlantic and Nevins is worth that much.
It’s interesting to note how different in tone this conversation is than if the random violence had happened in Bed-Stuy or Crown Heights. Here, some people try to actually say that project is simply not part of the neighborhood! Hey that solves it! Had it happened in the other areas, let me tell you I can already envision the comments about how property values will plummet in those war zones and you need a bullet-proof vest to run out for a gallon of milk.
No matter where it happened, though, the story is a sad one.
Sloper–
My apologies. I thought some brand new thought control of some realtor kind was making an appearance and I had to question it!
“They are independent entities, like Vatican City within Rome.”
Right… those Vatican bullets are really something, aren’t they.
I don’t know if you’re joking or not, but that’s the kind of attitude that really gets to me. First of all, it’s enormously rude to the residents of the Wyckoff and Gowanus houses, many of whom have probably lived there for 30 years. Boerum Hill is most certainly their neighborhood. Second, it’s idiotic, because the crime-levels associated with the more dangerous projects do spill into the nearby streets. Tell the kid who got shot a few years back in Red Hook, in the school yard across from the projects, that the projects are a world onto themselves.
c,I was actually replying to the commenter at 4:19, who said that the Wyckoff houses were worse than the Gowanus houses, and that the Wyckoff houses weren’t really part of the neighborhood. I wasn’t sure what the exact boundaries were either, but I found this on the web:
“Most residents are not even aware of the true boundaries of their neighborhood. Boerum Hill begins at Court Street, running east to Fourth Avenue. To the north and south, Schermerhorn Street and Warren Street.”
As to Bergen Street being an different world, well, yeah, sort of, in terms of who can afford to live there. But things like stray bullets and people looking for drugs or someone to mug, that sort of stuff crosses the street pretty easily.
I admit, though, I’ve never lived in Boerum Hill, so I really only speak from a general knowledge having grown up in South Brooklyn.
Forgive me, but… says who?
Sloper,
Projects, like any undesirable areas, are for real estate sales purposes not part of any neighborhood. They are independent entities, like Vatican City within Rome.