House of the Day: 439 East 19th Street
We’re liking the look of this single-family house at 439 East 19th Street in Ditmas Park—the original built-ins and coffered ceilings are stunning. The 2,800-square-foot house changed hands in 2002 for $775,000 and just hit the market now for $1,249,000. That comes out to about $450 per square foot, less than what this house a…
We’re liking the look of this single-family house at 439 East 19th Street in Ditmas Park—the original built-ins and coffered ceilings are stunning. The 2,800-square-foot house changed hands in 2002 for $775,000 and just hit the market now for $1,249,000. That comes out to about $450 per square foot, less than what this house a couple of blocks away recently sold for.
[Brooklyn Hearth] GMAP P*Shark
Maybe it’s because I went to shitty urban public schools, but I don’t think the current NYC public schools are particularly bad. Or maybe I just don’t value education that highly.
Assuming that costs and taxes, inclusive of R.E. and local/state income, are equal, the one tremendous advantage that certain suburbs have is proximity to nice outdoor areas. If you’re in South Orange you can go to South Mountain, or if you’re in Sleepy Hollow you have the Rockefeller Park Preserve, etc. In Brooklyn you have sorry-ass Prospect Park. To me the big drawback of the suburbs is being tied to a train schedule, and the fact that for a lot of places in NYC you’d want to go, you’ll end up switching to the subway anyway.
“Yet you are advising families to invest top dollar in Brkln.”
Do you have any idea how unhinged you sound in nearly every one of your posts, Maple? I’m not advising anybody. I’m making comments on a blog. These are my opinions and nothing more. If someone is going to spend 1.2 million dollars on a home, I’d hope they have the good sense to not listen to some random on brownstoner and do their own research.
Are you THAT desperate for business out in NJ?
11217, I hear you, and I’m just playing devil’s advocate.
But let me just share this with you. I grew up in an almost all-white, mind-numbingly dull suburb. I swore up and down that I would NEVER leave a city center. I spent the past 20 years living in central London, Manhattan, finally Brooklyn. My husband and I were in 100 percent agreement that we would never leave. We would fight to make the system work for our kids, and it did for some of them, if not for others… But still, we never thought about moving.
Then there was something called the recession. Feeding our children mandated that we relocate. We had no choice. For the first time in our lives, we were forced to leave our beloved urban dwelling. Now, I hope this never happens to you, but honestly, it could. Anything can happen. No one truly knows what the future holds. It’s great to have ideals, but sometimes they are compromised.
Being forced to move to a semi-rural (not really suburban) Westchester community has been a huge shock to the system. Would I move back to Brooklyn? I might. But now, in contrast to when I lived in Brookly, I have a nagging guilt about forcing my kids back into NYC public schools. I argued for years that NYC schools were not inferior, what they offered was superior to anything suburbia had to offer, in a nut-shell, we thought we were BETTER. We thought we were too good to live in the suburbs. We denied that our children might possibly be suffering on some level because of our refusal to leave the city. Maybe, to be a little kinder to ourselves, we didn’t even realize it. Until we got out here and couldn’t deny what are kids were getting, educationally.
I’m still in mourning for the sophistication, fredom, cultural exposure, interactions, experiences, etc… that are truly only the domain of the city child. And that is all I ever imagined for my children from the day they were born. Part of me would love to give that back to them… And then I think of what I would have to take away… and I just can’t do that either. There is no escape, no matter where I raise them now. There is no perfect world. From my perspective, in terms of my children, neither Brookyn nor Bedford is a clear winner.
So wherever life takes you, 11217, and any future little ones, I wish you the best… Make the most of wherever you are, whenever you are.
Hear, hear, 11217 and rf. And for the record, Maplewood Guy, I agree with 11217 and I *have* a kid I’ve raised in Brooklyn. Some of us are just city folks, and want our kids to have the benefits that come from growing up in a vital urban environment.
It is actually BETTER to have a train schedule as one can time ones chores and what not. Obviously you never commuted by train.In addition, it is a much better space for doing work.
As the white mother of a nonwhite (Chinese) kid, I don’t think I (or she) could stand moving to a place that was 85-90 percent white. So far, so good in school for us (she’s in a great middle school), and I think we’ll finish off fine in a good-to-great high school. It’s hard right now because the neighborhood schools in many wonderful nabes are not good, but the next 10 years without easy variances should improve enough neighborhood schools to make it ok. At least I hope so.
Meanwhile, I love the fact that she is a child of the city and of the world. Give her a metrocard and a cell phone and, at 13, she’s great.
I don’t buy this “closer to midtown” argument at all. If you live outside of the city, you’re beholden to a train schedule. So while the actual train ride may be shorter, the train may only run every 30 minutes or every 60 minutes at certain times of day. Plus, you generally have to drive to the train station from home in the morning, and then drive back in the evening, which is additional time, cost and hassle. Even at rush hour, when the commuter trains run more often, I’m always so grateful as I watch the poor suckers RUNNING for the subway so they don’t miss the connection to the 6:13 train back to Maplewood. If I miss one subway train, it’s no biggie: I can wait five minutes and grab the next one. Or, coming back to Brooklyn late at night, I can just hail a cab.
“I will admit it’s easier for me to sit back and say these things without kids, but at the same time I do know that I could never and would never live outside a city center.”
Yet you are advising families to invest top dollar in Brkln.
No child deserves to have their soul crushed due to an absolutely awful educational experience, although perhaps some would argue otherwise…