House of the Day: 52 Irving Place
Here’s a listing in our own backyard we hadn’t seen yet because its promotion appears to have been limited to Craigslist. It’s fairly unremarkable, though if you lost the white vinyl windows and non-period metal gate you might have something to work with. But it’s most notable for the fact that it is a brownstone…
Here’s a listing in our own backyard we hadn’t seen yet because its promotion appears to have been limited to Craigslist. It’s fairly unremarkable, though if you lost the white vinyl windows and non-period metal gate you might have something to work with. But it’s most notable for the fact that it is a brownstone in Clinton Hill available for less than a million bucks ($975,000). It appears to be quite narrow however and certainly in need of some work–just how much is hard to tell from the pics. There was an open house yesterday, so maybe someone can give us some color.
Clinton Hill One Family [Craigslist] GMAP P*Shark
Er, getting back to the house. If it is the one I saw a couple months ago, it is an SRO which has been nicely surfaced. But kind of small. In this immediate neighborhood there a lot of unoccupied or semi-occupied homes crying out for some TLC. Prices are too high for people like me to buy and rehab on our own, while the owners only have to pay the RE taxes and so are waiting for that perfect offer. It is stalling the changes in this corner (without providing housing for the poor since many landowners prefer an empty house to the problems of tenants.)
For whatever reason Bed Stuy is more well-known outside of NYC (or even Brooklyn) than Fort Greene or Clinton Hill — just makes more sense to tell people you’re from a place they’ve heard of.
Makes no sense. It is a Clinton Hill Street when in Clinton Hill and a Bed Stuy street when in Bed Stuy. I understand when people gripe that Bed Stuy or other neighborhoods are renamed by real estate agents trying to push the boundaries of what area is gentrified, but at the same time I think it is silly to say that, for example, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill did not exist at neighborhoods in their own right until they were gentrified.
Have a look in old Brooklyn Daily Eagle archives from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Their are plenty of references to Fort Greene, the “Clinton District” and Clinton Hill as neighborhoods. The names of the neighborhoods are not new inventions just because for the past 50 years people called everyting from downtown Brooklyn through Bed Stuy the same thing.
Those areas were all considered Bed-Stuy until recently. Steet cred has nothing to do with it cuz Clinton Hill and Fort Greene were rough not too long ago as well (and they have been shouted out in plenty of rap songs). You have to be right up in the area to know the changes that have just recently taken place. And Quincy street is a Bed Stuy street, even if it starts just inside CH. The block party was dope tho, even in the rain!
And Spike Lee grew up in Cobble Hill
The block party was in front of the Broken Angel at Downing and Quincy – so Clinton Hill. All the Notorious BIG stories and documentaries say he was from BS too when he lived on St. James near Fulton, again Clinton Hill. Guess BS has more street cred for Hip Hop purposes…
I went to the Dave Chappelle block party and it was on Gates… a few blocks up from Classon, I think. I guess that’s technically Clinton Hill. perhaps they were referring to the crowd being mostly bedstuy?! lol… that was a total stretch but worth a try.
The “dividing line” between Clinton Hill and Bed Stuy traditionally began at Grand or Classon — it’s only been in the last 10 or less years that people started claiming that CH extended all the way past Franklin.
Brownstoner, that’s probably because it sounds more “urban” and “gritty” to say Bed Stuy. One of those rare times where being in the hood is an advantage.
I’m not too happy about that, but I find it interesting. Between Dave Chapelle and being a hot new nabe, Bed Stuy must have truly arrived! Can Starbucks and a Corcoran office be far off?
Can a blog reply drip sarcasm?