House of the Day: 590 Decatur Street
For a house with a ton of charm and not in need of a ton of work, 590 Decatur Street seems reasonably priced at $699,000. The only drawback we can see is that it’s pretty far east into Bed Stuy–several blocks beyond Stuyvesant Heights. It’s about equi-distant from the Ralph Avenue C train and the…
For a house with a ton of charm and not in need of a ton of work, 590 Decatur Street seems reasonably priced at $699,000. The only drawback we can see is that it’s pretty far east into Bed Stuy–several blocks beyond Stuyvesant Heights. It’s about equi-distant from the Ralph Avenue C train and the Halsey Street J train. The three-story, two-family house in one in a row of charmer, though. Any readers live right around here? What are the services like?
590 Decatur Street [Brooklyn Properties] GMAP P*Shark
anonymous 5:55, you wrote:
“Re: the poster above who recommended Borough Park — but I think that as somebody who is not an orthodox Jew, I would definitely not feel comfortable there!”
Why? Worried about being assaulted in a drive-by nagging?
Yeah, we know what you meant you racist son of a bitch.
Jeez, so much for trying to take a short vacation! Our comment about being further east was nothing more than an allusion to the fact that, in general, property values decline the further out you get from Manhattan, Obviously, Stuyvesant Heights is an exception to this rule.
Re: the poster above who recommended Borough Park — but I think that as somebody who is not an orthodox Jew, I would definitely not feel comfortable there!
It’s crazy how, in a town that votes overwhelmingly toward the liberal agenda on every issue (thank god), an anonymous thread brings out so many right-wing nut-job rants. Most of them are just from trolls who love to irritate, I’m sure–a super cheap, easy way to get your adolescent rocks off, but awfully boring, if you ask me.
I think this looks like a beautiful and interesting house, and I think it’s exciting as hell that Bed-Stuy is seeing such an influx of badly needed restoration-minded people. The two families I know who are doing it (one black, one white) are both professional 30-somethings but NOT lawyers or hedge-funders–just people with decent jobs. They’re not invaders, they’re not out to displace anybody, they are, like all of us, people who need a place to live that they can afford. And they’re spending a helluva lot of time at building supply stores–just like the amazing couple that does the Bed-Stuy Reno Blog. There is nooooo shortage of housing in BS that needs TLC from people like this. Hostility toward these people is ridiculously misguided.
1:28-
Um, is it any MORE black over there east of Stuy Heights than it is IN Stuy Heights proper? I don’t think so.
Would you have said the same thing if the line were:
“The only drawback we can see is that it’s pretty far north into Greenpoint–several blocks beyond Williamsburg.”
NO. I somehow doubt you would be screaming about the anti-polish prejudice.
The fact is, it’s generally seen as simply less “desirable” and this is reflected in home sales prices in the area. It’s further from most neighborhood businesses & amenities, further from the A express train (not to mention further from the economic centers of Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn), in an area with lower sale prices, outside the historic district, and in an area with about the same racial makeup as the Stuyvesant Heights section (ie: predominantly black).
Why is it someone on this board always cries “racist” when there’s no call for it?
Need I go on?
My, how the anonymity of a blog lets us safely lose our civility and respect, allows us to vent our anger and indulge in those ugly feelings and thoughts we have for those that are other than we are.
Some of us are more disciplined and circumspect, some less so, but we all have some racist views, no matter how innocuous. We all subconsiously discriminate (differentiate) to categorize people and impose a sort of logic and structure to our surroundings. Visual attributes such as skin color are simply the easiest way for us to categorize. Correlations such as other=dangerous or black=poor lie along that slippery slope.
And we use our limited experiences and what we learn through others (media) to reinforce the stereotypes that are so convenient to making sense of the world, predicting how people will act, protecting us from harm. Lazy, perhaps, but human.
So has this profound insight helped me avoid my own bias (sounds better, doesn’t it) when I, as a lily white man went to an open house in Crown Heights last weekend?
No. I imagined how uncomfortable I would be as perhaps the only white person on the block, perhaps a common experience for many non-whites in our society. I also squirmed at the notion of being yet another “gentrifier” displacing a proud, black family with my purchasing power.
As I left and decided against making an offer, I envied the sense of community, history, and pride I perceived, which I miss in Park Slope, where my neighbors walk by me without a word or smile. A sense of entitlement and priviledge (“got my $2 million brownstone, got too much to lose to trust you, which eye contact would imply”).
Decisions, decisions. Want to live among “real” people not spoiled by success/inheritance and drowning in $$, want to feel like I am among people that would make me feel welcome, want to feel safe…
Dallas and Boston are way more segregated than NYC, by the way.
Not signing this time because this become way too confessional.
I do live at Clinton/Washington on C train stop and I used to live at Greene and Malcolm X so I know the neighborhood pretty well. To me almost all of Brooklyn that’s not an hour into the city is ripe for development and or cleanup but there are pockets that seem stagnant and I wondered if this was one of them. When I lived on Greene it was ok but there was definetly a lot of corner action. That hasn’t changed much in the two years I’ve not lived there from what I can see. But with Bushwick or East Williamsburg on the come up depending on who you ask I wonder if this part of BK might finally get some shine.
Ah, the Brower Park troll strikes again. As stupid as it sounds, the only post I wrote was the first one, at 4:08. All others, veritas and all, are from the troll imposter. I know no one cares but me, and I know this sounds SO stupid and juvenile, but there it is. Sometimes the truth is stupid and juvenile sounding.
I will not be posting again on this topic, or anywhere else today. I love Brownstoner, but the racial stuff here, and in the last couple of days, is just getting to be too much. Real life is hard enough. Honestly, can’t we all just get along?