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 was sexually abused by a stranger in my apartment building’ elevator when I was 10 years old. I remember what I felt for, like, a whole year afterwards: paranoid. Every tall guy with blond hair looked like the perp to me, and the fear that I felt made me sick. Every time I came home from school I was sick with fear when entering my building. And I mean physically ill- ready to throw up. Moving wasn’t an option for my family, but you bet – I’d love to move and never ride that elevator again. So I totally understand Rushkoff’s emotional state. But time really heals. The fear eventually goes away. The Rushkoffs are currently understandably hysterical and paranoid – they should go to therapy, not to the burbs or to radio shows.
Poor guy sounded like he was about to cry on Brian Lehrer, and wasn’t making any sense…
i understand the feeling of wanting to flee. after i got beat up in bed stuy, i desperately wanted to move out, but at the same time i knew it wouldn’t be the right decision. i own my home and wasn’t going to be forced out of the neighborhood i decided to call home. i’ve been ok since then (knock on wood.)
and here the whole time i was jealous of the safety of park slope. guess i was wrong!
i have no idea who this guy is, but i think if he really wanted to live in brooklyn, he’d stay there. in many respects brooklyn is more urban than manhattan as it becomes more and more a sanitized corporate theme park.
As we say in certain parts of BK, beat it.
Anon – 11:43 – How is is my racism? And today we’re discussing NYC neighborhoods. I’m not trying to win any PC arguments – believe me. It’s a simple test and I’m willing to undertake it with anyone if they wish.
hes not going to bed-stuy with bling – he’ll get mugged…..
Think about this for a second. Mr. Rushkoff is going through a slump in his career and decides that he needs to take some action. So he goes out any hires some poor slob to participate in a little project. For a few bucks the guys agrees to “mug” him on the street in front of his house. Mr. R gets a lot of publicity and is instantly famous!!!
Sound strange, but in this YouTube/MySpace me, me, me/ self promotion world, stanger things have happened!!!!!!
yea – your racism you mean. You can do the test in any nice hood in Boston and the WHITE projects of south boston if you like. You’ll get the same result. You clowns can’t even think straight from your knee-jerking “its racism” all the time. Why don’t you admit the truth of it instead of just trying to win the PC argument.
I lived in Park Slope for 12 years. I was mugged once and that was in 2000 in downtown Manhattan on the Broadway Lafayette train platform during rush-hour (where I was dragged across the platform and the guy tried to throw me on the tracks because I wouldn’t let go of my bag). Getting mugged is traumatic, but give me a break, you get over it. I got over it. And I’m a five foot tall woman. I still go to that platform and take the train. But now I’m more aware of my surroundings. This is a city, after all. The potential for crime is everywhere. It’s this kind of self-obsessed, yuppies-with-blinders that prompted me to jump ship from the Slope.
Let’s take the test together ‘David’ and the other poster – ‘nice ostentatious gold bling’-Anon 11:17 and go to Bed-Stuy where I live and also to Brownsville to see what happens. And then let’s go hang in PS in the evening perhaps near beautiful Prospect Park. I’ll bet we’ll have just as much chance of being victims there as well.
Are you ready to put your racist beliefs to a test?