House of the Day: 1232 Dean Street
This four-story house at 1232 Dean Street in Crown Heights just hit the market and, like so many houses in the area, has some killer architectural details. (In this case, it’s the wood paneling and built-ins that really impress.) Hopefully for the seller, this place will attract more interest than the next-door neighbor at 1230…
This four-story house at 1232 Dean Street in Crown Heights just hit the market and, like so many houses in the area, has some killer architectural details. (In this case, it’s the wood paneling and built-ins that really impress.) Hopefully for the seller, this place will attract more interest than the next-door neighbor at 1230 Dean Street, which we featured a year ago and is still on the market for $1,250,000. While we suspect there will be plenty of people who dig the house, we suspect that the price tag of $999,000 for a house in this neighborhood may be a tough sell in this economic environment.
1232 Dean Street [Halstead] GMAP P*Shark
Yes, MM. My neighbors on my block want the empty storefronts occupied as much as I do. They don’t want a Crown Chicken coming in around the corner and they are all active in the community association. They have probably all been in their homes for 50 years or more and they are delightful neighbors. I’m the only white one on my side of the block. It is a really great great neighborhood. We all pitch in to clean up the paper trash that blows around (all originating from the bodega customers mind you) and shovel sidewalks in the winter.
Daveinbedstuy, PWA Steering Committee
“I don’t see how anyone can move anywhere and not be involved in some way in making things better. That may go no further than getting all of your neighbors to pick up the trash on the sidewalk, but it all is something to the good.”
This is the crux of it…Anyone who doesn’t think this way, especially when moving to an “emerging” neighborhood, is very short sighted and probably not someone you want as a neighbor. In my neck of the woods I welcome anyone who wants to make the street nicer, be friendly and get involved no matter what color their skin is…
I dunno, cobblehiller- I’d have a tough time forgiving someone who actually owns a boxed set of Andy Williams. True aficionados own boxed sets of Perry Como 🙂 (but I love you anyway biff!). I think Biff should provide us all with rum laced…no, infused,…no….infested with rum!
Sorry about your job too. I made up me mind, this is still a holiday season and I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can. I’m making all my gifts, like I used to do, and hopefully throwing a couple of family dinners (cat recipes anyone?) and hope for the best, for all of us.
haha–i am all in fun about this. he probably isn’t even reading this thread anymore anyway so if you want to retract its easy enough. but really you and biff being enemies just doesn’t make much sense to me.
Hey, welcome back Bxgrl! Missed ya. Cats can be a bit chewy and gristley. Not good.
I think gentrification, like most things in this world, is a give and take. For every new, green industry job, someone loses an old traditional job. For every automated ticket machine, or check out machine, a cashier is unemployed. It is unfortunate, yet a fact of life, that those on the bottom always get screwed. You can do one of two things, as a caring member of society, opt out, and live in a cave, or live your life doing what you have to for yourself, and devote some of your time and money to helping others.
I think something bedstuy11216 said yesterday is so true – just because our neighborhoods are lacking in services, better stores, etc, should we accept the status quo, in its “authenticity”, or do we deserve better – all of us? I’m sorry, I deserve better, my neighbor on welfare down the street deserves better, and the person who just bought the 1.2 mil house down the block does too. That is one of the upside of gentrification. Not that Bob Whitebread wants arugula and free range chicken, but that all of us want fresh produce and meat at a fair price. A neighborhood like Bed Stuy or Crown Heights has plenty of room for all kinds of retail, from bargain stores to boutiques. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
It is unfortunate and racist/classist that improved services/stores/attention seems to follow only when the wealthier white folks move in. But they wouldn’t be moving in, if it weren’t for, as bxgrl said, people who have held it together for years, and organizations that work to improve things for everyone, most of which were here before the “first wave” moved in.
I say, use it. Use the attention, the press coverage, the new money, the new people, and form our unique agendas. The increased police protection protects all of us. The better grocery stores serve all of us. Any retailer, or grocer with half a brain today is not going to snub huge sections of potential customers by catering to a small minority, if he does, he will be out of business.
We use our considerable power to demand affordable housing, to demand fairness in social service allocations, to demand that job creation is a part of every large project. To be a gentrifier in my neighborhood should mean more than just getting some great real estate for less than in Park Slope. I don’t see how anyone can move anywhere and not be involved in some way in making things better. That may go no further than getting all of your neighbors to pick up the trash on the sidewalk, but it all is something to the good.
There are plenty of parts of gentrification that piss me off and that I hate. The idea that a house, an apartment, a neighborhood is no more than a transitory station to be abandoned when one’s financial betters arrive being chief among them. There is much to discuss, and I welcome thoughtful discussion, as I welcome new neighbors.
Montrose Morris, PBA Chairperson
Ok, let’s not get too crazy here…I didn’t say I was going to be his BFF {best friend forever).
YAYY!! And the angels sang…
“I think cobblehiller’s a very good person at heart who supports and cares about her community immensely, and has done it for a long time. We can disagree on things, but it shouldn’t have gotten personal. I would rather use my negative energy on my real enemies :-)”
Alright wasder, here you go…
In the name of peace, I will accept your apology Biff.
cobblehiller–your wanting to do it the right way will be rewarded some day I would bet. I am glad you didn’t join in the melee. I was able to buy my house because I bought a super cheap one bedroom in 2002 and have since bought and sold twice to get the house where I am. Don’t know if it makes me part of the problem or the solution but I know that I am doing my best to integrate into my neighborhood with good intentions.
and when I said “you can do it” i was talking about accepting the apology.