Let's Talk About the Rushkoffs, Dammit
Since we’re about the only publication in town who hasn’t written about writer Douglas Rushkoff’s Christmas eve mugging outside his Park Slope apartment and subsequent decision to leave (and, along with his wife, to write about leaving) Brooklyn, we might as well throw it out there. His wife now famously wrote that she felt safer…
Since we’re about the only publication in town who hasn’t written about writer Douglas Rushkoff’s Christmas eve mugging outside his Park Slope apartment and subsequent decision to leave (and, along with his wife, to write about leaving) Brooklyn, we might as well throw it out there. His wife now famously wrote that she felt safer in the East Village in the 1980s that she does in Park Slope today, which sounded kind of silly until her hubby clarified that this was only because they knew the drug dealers in the East Village. We got a call from a reporter a couple of days ago asking whether we thought the incident would have a negative effect on real estate prices. In short? No. In long? No, no, no. The Rushkoffs decision to leave was an emotional, albeit understandable, one. Unless the entire city enters a 1970s-like downward spiral, we’re pretty sure Park Slope will be just fine.
Do You Care If the Rushkoffs Leave Brooklyn? [New York Magazine]
On Leaving Brooklyn [Steven Berlin Johnson]
The Rushkoffs’ original blog posts are no longer available online.
I used to have a lot of respect for rushkoff, but this entire thing is really, really stupid. They’re both wussies and don’t deserve to live in NYC. If I moved every time I felt unsafe, I’d have nowhere to live. I was jumped 3 times in spanish harlem before I began to feel “safe” early last year. lol. Yeah, move to the burbs I guess Rushkoff. The livin is easy there and you only have to deal w/ the meth labs. Oh I forgot, you’re cool w/ the meth dealers, so it’s all good.
Perhaps more crack intake would endear you to the local park slope dealers.
when i got mugged in front of my own house ten years ago for a measly $20, all i have to say is, i thanked my lucky stars that i wasn’t hurt, let alone killed. but it wasn’t personal — the perp was on a mission for money, and maybe the thrill of riling a yuppie chick. rushkoff should realize his good fortune, too. he’s freaked, yes, but he’s alive, unhurt, and well, and lucky he can blog about it and have a bunch of friends and strangers and ny magazine opine about it, and weigh in about his decision whether or not to move to the ‘burbs. if he wants to go, go, i say. city living is not for everyone. shit happens everywhere. best of luck, mr rushkoff. me, i love brooklyn and i’m not going to throw away years of contentment for an anomalous encounter with some dumbass gun- or knife-toting kids looking for meth money or some kind of rush. i understand if a person was being stalked, robbed, violated and/or terrorized inside their home–nothing is more terrifying–but a one-off mugging on the street like that shouldn’t chase anyone out of their home and beloved neighborhood. but that’s just one person’s opinion. . .
oh my god anon 7:10,
you nailed it. this brings this incident into relief. rushkoff really needs to put his experience into context. what if the muggers AND the cops saw you as an enemy? (although this does not minimize his experience)
At least he was not leaving his bachelor party, and got shot at 51 times by the cops!!!
1:36, I don’t doubt that you and yours are lovely people. Sometimes we wind up in buildings filled with sucky neighbors. I myself have been subjected to crap luck for the first time in my long Slope life, because our neighbors and specifically our coop prez is a nasty bastard, and we live in a four-unit building. The whole point of buying was to secure our future in the Slope because we love its neighborliness. Go figure. So we’re stuck with ’em for awhile. And they, too, are Slope lifers. Anyway, sorry to hear you have snubby snobby neighbors–I don’t doubt it. My point was simply that I find they’re the exception, not the rule here in the Slope, from what I can tell, and you’ve got your friends. When you hang out with them, you can marvel over how self-important and ridiculous your neighbors appear to be, and, well, make fun of them.
I totally agree with you, 7:02 about weird crazy crimes in the suburbs, but to answer your question yes we extend invitations to our neighbors, whenever we have a party. And in case you’re wondering, we’re nice, presentable people with lots of friends. No apparent reason we’d be snubbed.
i started reading rushkoff’s stuff on judaism and social justice (to really really reduce it)after this whole thing and he is very impressive and thoughtful. his writing is so complex amd meaningful and is not at all reflected in his initial response to getting “vicked” as we called getting mugged in the 80s. he must feel just horrible being so wrongfully perceived. or perhaps he is like the rest of us, a walking contradiction?
I’m a Slope veteran, and last I checked, the Slope isn’t some private gated community or even a suburb–it’s a NYC neighborhood, so I’m baffled by all this whiny chatter about cliques. When did Park Slope start a country club, and where is it? Neighborhoods are what you make of them. Your neighbors don’t invite you to dinner? Have you invited them? Had they invited everyone BUT you? It’s not as insular as all that. Slopers have friends in other neighborhoods, jobs in other boroughs, lives outside the listservs, bulletin boards, and the coop.
As for Rushkoff, let him move to the ‘burbs, where it’s oh-so-safe. Why he feels entitled to safety because he pays so much in rent is laughable–what a weasel. Has he not been living in NYC for years and years, being protected by the neighborhood watch that is the East Village drug dealer squad? Make sure to bring those guys to Maplewood to fend off evil. And don’t let the car door hit you on the way out. . . .
Ever notice that in the ‘burbs, when people really lose their shit, instead of offing themselves, they take down their families with them in some horrendous bloodbath? Where does everyone get the guns? A friend of mine who lives in a fancy suburb in Central Jersey has had two of these happen within a four-block radius of her home in the past year and a half. I swear, there are at least two reported incidents in the Times of these grisly suburban domestic murders a week. . . Well, hey, at least there, Rushkoff won’t get mugged. . . Honestly, I’d rather live in the city, among a strain of insanity I can wrap my mind around.
Someone posted this:
“I moved here in June and not one single person has invited me over to their house. So much for “community”.”
I find Park Slope really cliquey. We’ve received a social invitation from people in our smallish building in Park Slope only once in three years. Pretty lame.