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 got mugged and punched in front of my appartment once. i have also had someone pull gun on me. this is new york city, what do you expect? considering their silly expectations and scaredy-poo reactions i’d say they belong in kansas.
There are people who live in the projects, many, many, many people, who go to work every single day. Just because you live in the projects does not mean that you are a criminal. That this has to be stated–that being working class or poor doesn’t necessarily make you a moral degenerate–is heartbreaking. The Rushkoff’s are leaving because they are now afraid of all of those young black and hispanic men they see in PS. He referred to them (those who mug)as the “poor neighborhood” under the “rich white one” again, conflating working class/poorer new yorkers and criminality. In his radio interview he named several other great neighborhoods that he might consider–all of them had one thing in common, and that is a small African-American population. I think he should be really honest and say that he is afraid of black and hispanic young men. That would be honest and would start a real dialogue, as it reflects the feeling of countless (certainly not all)white people in predominantly brown/black Brooklyn. Also, he should know that he is very late to Park Slope’s gentrification. There were plenty of white people in PS in the 70s and 80s (some visionary, somejust smart, others truly egalitarian) during a truly more dangerous time. Many of these people were writers like him, but also teachers, actors, social workers, painters etc. I agree w. Rushkoffthat there is class tension in PS and gentrified Brooklyn in general. This is classic Republican era stuff. The wealthy are wealthier than ever and the working class and poor are being left behind (white, brown and black).
I think he lives nears methodist, which apparently attracts some criminal element (just hearsay). Then there is that school within John Jay for suspended kids…
These things happen. You don’t have to assume that Brooklyn is circling the drain because this person was robbed, but it doesn’t invalidate his experience nor is it difficult to understand his decision. When you no longer feel safe, you have a big problem, no matter what causes it. Sometimes little things can freak you out and you can live in pleasant denial about real dangers. There was some minor vandalism to my house some time ago and I was very spooked by it for a while. But these things can happen everywhere and they do, so I don’t think we can make any assumptions about larger picture.
Sort of a non-story, really. If this were the only mugging in the city this year, then perhaps it’s worthy of discussion. Keep in mind the number of crimes (and really really badly personal crimes) that occur while people are waiting to find their keys in their own vestibules in unattended manhattan apartment buildings. Not trying to justify the crime, but rather saying if you’re trying to run from crime, better be ready to run long and far.
Hey, I was mugged in front of my house in Clinton Hill in the 80s. I figured that was better than my prior digs in the East Village, where three people were shot in front of my apt in a single night of drug dealing (yes I knew the dealers, but that didn’t make me feel more secure…there’s still the crossfire). Better yet, my mugging was one in a series at the same corner, and my neighbors finally nailed the guy in the act when his next victim screamed bloody murder, and accidentally broke his legs while waiting for the cops to arrive. No more muggings at that corner…and better security than the East Village.
One more reason that this guy’s a twit. (You should try reading his books….)
completely off topic, but I’ve always liked the two small limestone townhouses in the photo above. They’re on Lafayette Avenue in Clinton Hill, between St. James Place and Grand Avenue, next to the Pratt Architecture School building.
Rick — if you’d read the original blog posts or listened to Rushkoff on the radio, I think you’d find your sympathy level taking a steep dive. These two talk as if they are the only people ever to be mugged, as if the fact that they pay a lot for their housing in Park Slope should be some kind of guarantor that they never encounter crime, as if they are mightily deprived if they can’t afford to send their child to private school, and on and on. If they had simply reported their misfortune, I am sure they would have received ample sympathy. But they thought instead that the fact that this happened was an event of great sociological significance. Thus the disdain.