House of the Day: 456 Bainbridge Street
It’s tough out there for a house in Bed Stuy. While houses in some of the more expensive neighborhoods in the borough continue to hold their value relatively well in the face of the national housing crisis, neighborhoods like Bed Stuy, which has had its share of subprime and foreclosure problems, are having a tougher…
It’s tough out there for a house in Bed Stuy. While houses in some of the more expensive neighborhoods in the borough continue to hold their value relatively well in the face of the national housing crisis, neighborhoods like Bed Stuy, which has had its share of subprime and foreclosure problems, are having a tougher go of it. Take, for example, the case of the 456 Bainbridge Street: The three-story house still has lots of original detail in the owner’s duplex and a two-bedroom apartment on the top floor to help cover the mortgage. It’s been a long, unfruitful sales process thus far. The house hit the market last July for $695,000 and has undergone three price cuts since, culminating with that week’s that brought the asking price to $525,000. Think this will be the magic number?
456 Bainbridge Street [Douglas Elliman] GMAP P*Shark
Price Cuts at Bed Stuy Townhouses: Is This a Trend? [Brownstoner]
“You may not be racist, your neighbors may not be, but can you say the same for everyone in your neighborhood? If so, Bed-Stuy is a one in a million place.”
There are racists in EVERY neighborhood. Mr. 2:05 lives somewhere.
Its racism directed at particular members of an ethnic group (e.g. white males 25-40 looking yuppy) as opposed to blanket racism against the ethnic group in general.
If you think there aren’t blacks in bedsty, crown heights, clinton hill and other neighborhoods who are racist and resentful of whites who move into the area, you are in serious denial.
There’s a difference between being afraid to move to an area because you think you are going to be robbed or shot and not wanting to move to an area where the current residents think you don’t belong. There are plenty of bitter black people in bedsty who resent any white person who has enough money to come in and buy a house at an inflated price.
3:30/3:50 additionally, you don’t know much about prices over there anyway. There has only been one or two properties that have sold for $1MM…certainly not mine. Try and get a better grasp of a whole neighborhood before you generalize about it.
I moved there because it IS a fringe neighborhood, not because it was the only thing I could afford. I now have signficant funds to invest in additional buildings there.
Also, you wrote “I’d say maybe 10% of the NYC white population would feel comfortable living there” I didn’t know you were a sociologist by profession.
2:29 are you saying you drove? like in a car?
You were driving through Bed Stuy slow enough to notice stares and you weren’t cruising for hookers and you weren’t on the right block for that anyway and you’re saying there is anything interesting about the fact that a bunch of people were looking at you like “what is up with that white dude cruising with his kid in the back seat? I’m so confused.”?
2:29 are you saying you drove? like in a car?
You were driving through Bed Stuy slow enough to notice stares and you weren’t cruising for hookers and you weren’t on the right block for that anyway and you’re saying there is anything interesting about the fact that a bunch of people were looking at you like “what is up with that white dude cruising with his kid in the back seat? I’m so confused.” is interesting? It isn’t.
“These blocks in Bed Stuy have NOT been gentrified by white people moving in. They have been gentrified by the existing long-term residents of each block individually. They were the ones who put an end to crime in their neighborhood and they were the ones who planted the gardens that won the award last year.”
The long-term residents are the same ones who created the problems there in the first place too. Nobody drove into the neighborhood from somewhere else to sell crack and commit violent crimes against people. It was the residents themselves.
OK, so everyone bitches that they can’t afford things on Brownstoner. Then this comes along and you say you can’t live here for what ever unfounded reason. This is why you will always be a renter. You can never make the leap. This is what is available at this price point. This house in Park Slope is out of your price range. This house in Fort Greene is out of your price range. This huose in Carroll Gardens is out of your price range. Deal with it. The price may be negociable, but not by much. This is the reality you simply don’t want to believe. You want to own a brownstone? This is one of the few remaining areas where you can get entry into that world. If you don’t believe that, you are kidding yourself.
Rent check was due on Sunday.
Dictionary Time
“Fringe neighborhood” means not enough white people. Or at least not enough of the kind of white people some white people would like to see.
People like Dave don’t count, as his comfort and acceptance in Bed Stuy make him suspect.
See white guy at 2:05, whose insulting,(and poor)use of Ebonics at 2:29 shows the kind of attitude no neighborhood needs, in regards to mocking the homes of people who have been raising families in homes long paid for, for generations, minding their own business, a without a care of whether or not some white gentrifier approves or not.