House of the Day: 362 Bainbridge Street
Did anyone make it to the open house at 362 Bainbridge. If the current owner’s not doing a hatchet job on the interior, this place could be interesting at $669,000. No interior pics on the Aguayo website and little detail but we like the facade. And how about the location? It looks like the neighboring…
Did anyone make it to the open house at 362 Bainbridge. If the current owner’s not doing a hatchet job on the interior, this place could be interesting at $669,000. No interior pics on the Aguayo website and little detail but we like the facade. And how about the location? It looks like the neighboring houses are in decent shape on the outside, although they both have a bad case of the white vinyl windows! Did anyone see any other interesting open houses?
Property #H362A [Aguayo & Huebener] GMAP P*Shark
I agree with the last poster at 10.10am. Sometimes people sound quite hypocritical in their posts when they slam a neighborhood for being too white or too black. When you get into those sorts of generalizations, you a clearly revealing your own preconceptions.
I ultimately think that it is more about class than race. Poorer areas have higher crime and are usually areas where a majority of the residents are black or other non-white minorities. The hard working (or unemployed – most of whom are not criminals!) residents of such neighborhoods (of ANY race) do not like having to deal with the criminal elements.
We all need to calm down and stop assuming that if a person complains about projects or crime in a neighborhood that such person is a racist and thinks all blacks and/or minorities are criminals. Just as buppies probably don’t like being called an “Uncle Tom” or a “sell-out” by other blacks if they work hard in a corporate type of job and try to improve their lot economically, white people who are not racist do not deserve to be lumped into a stereotype because they are wary of living in a high crime area. I think the posts on this blog would benefit greatly if everyone would try not to read into every comment and accuse one another of racism.
I’m the one who said the Heights and Slope are relentlessly white. I’m white, so it isn’t about not wanting to stick out. It is unappealing to me to live in an area where everyone looks the same, and yes I’d say the same about an all-black, all-hispanic or all-asian area. But you really can’t compare the phenomena. Minorities and immigrants choose to live together for very different reasons than wealthy whites do.
In the last century, both the Heights and the Slope were far more diverse (socially and racially) than they are now. I find it very sad that they have become such upperclass white ghettos. Perhaps it is not “unnatural” for people to want to be around only those who look, think, and act like them. But I wish it were.
There is no such thing as relentless whiteness of the Heights and the Slope to be extremely unappealing and unnatural.
If that were true all black areas, all asian areas, all hispanic areas would be relentless, extremely unappealing and unnatural.
Its hypocritical and placing blame on others.
If someone feels uncomfortable around large quanties of people, who do not look like them(any race), the people aren’t unnatural. The person who feels uncomfortable just doesn’t like to standing out in the crowd.
If you feel more comfortable around people who look like you that is fine but the USA is a diverse place and you also need to be tolerant of others. It isn’t only about others being tolerant of you.
Discussing Brooklyn without talking about race or class is like discussing politics without mentioning politicians or policy. It is not intolerant to say you don’t want to live next to a project. Nor is it intolerant for a black person to say he or she doesn’t want to live in an all-white area. When we decide where we want to live and raise our children we all take into account the class, culture, and lifestyle of our potential neighbors. Ignoring that fact is absurd.
Carl, please don’t think of yourself as naive and I am sorry that you were beaten up in your BedStuy neighborhood. I do not wish violence on anyone. I should point out that the lower east side in Manhattan seems just as dangerous as certain parts of Brooklyn. My point is that you can be a victim anywhere…..not just BedStuy.
Actually, there aren’t any housing projects in Clinton Hill.
The projects in Fort Greene are geographically isolated from the rest of the neighborhood (separated by a park and a large hill). The Brevort Houses (the projects near this house, on the other hand, are more integrated into the community, meaning that they are more likely to affect it. Hence, I agree with the above post about taking the location into consideration. It’s not about race, but about class and the tiny number of people who commit violent crimes. The higher the concentration of poverty, the more violent crime. It goes without saying that if the projects were populated by college-educated, middle-class black people working professional jobs, white yuppies wouldn’t think twice about living nearby. But when you have drug dealing, gunshots, and violence, they understandably stay away. That’s not arrogance, that’s good sense.
wow. seems like the class/race wars are what’s starting to define brooklyn. that’s unfortunate. while i think brooklykn is a segregated borough, i always thought the people who live there are espouse the tolerance that new yorkers are known for. doesn’t appear to be the case, on this web site at least. i think any neighborhood that is dominantly one race is “unnatural” to use a previous poster’s terminology.
i’ll admit it. i’m a naive white person who’s been living in bed stuy for over two years now. my mostly black neighbors complain about the projects. recently, i was beat up walking home from work and the cops were frank in telling me the bad elements are in the projects. it’s a sad fact of life, but something that people need to be aware of when purchasing a house. it’s not racist or classist, just smart.
Comments about “powerwashing” not removing the projects is hard to hear as either incredibly racist or incredibly tone-deaf. Of course nothing wrong with saying it is near a project etc. As someone who has just started reading the comments on this blog, I do find it remarkable how close to the surface is the latent racism and classism. Or maybe it is not remarkable at all.