brownstones
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.


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  1. What I don’t like about Brooklyn: you can’t walk long distances from here to there without avoiding projects. Steets are dark and depressing at night. It aint Manhattan and BTW I moved here in June and not one single person has invited me over to their house. So much for “community”. I’m selling my place and moving back across the river. The stroller moms and pretentious hipster writers arew boring/irritating.

  2. I am so sick of how people on this site are constantly stereotyping muggers. I am a longtime mugger who pays his taxes on time, is a member of the PTA and owns a $3m brownstone on Prospect Park West. As you can imagine I have an expensive mortgage; hence my reliance on mugging, which enables me to send my children to Score on 7th Ave (they are currently preparing for their scholastic aptitude tests). Also in my defense, I was sexually molested by my landlord when I was 11, and my enjoyment of hurting and robbing innocent victims is partly a way of expressing my outrage at the loss of my own innocence (granted, I initiated the molestation). Incidentally, I have also have committed arson and usury, but I’ve found I get my greatest sense of fulfillment from mugging. It may also interest you to learn that I have chosen the accoutrements of my crime to reflect my identity and lifestyle. I use a Native-American crafted cudgel of turquoise, and I wear a ski mask embroidered with Peruvian fabrics.

    In any case I urge Mr. Rushkoff to rethink his decision to move to the suburbs. In my opinion, leaving a lively, diverse environment such as the Slope may have an adverse effect on his writing.

  3. I just listened to Rushkoff’s WNYC interview – this guy is all over the place but essentially he accusses PSers of simply being caught up in some ridiculous housing frenzy that self-perpetuates some false notion of utopia –
    Yet the question Ruskoff fails to specifically answer is where in the NY area can someone find a similar urban (i.e. non car -centric) neighborhood that is walkable, mass transit accessible, with nice housing stock, a (relative) low crime rate, has nearby parks, tree-lined streets, good shopping and great restaurants, is reasonably close to Manhattan, with good public schools and costs appreciably less (on a per sq ft basis)????

    I dont think that PS is some sort of Nirvana but when I weigh those factors on my scale PS still seems like a good deal FOR ME (compared to other NYC neighborhoods) – now maybe living in an urban enviroment isnt so important to Rushkoff, or maybe great restaurants don’t matter to him, or maybe he’d rather live in a 2br in Manhattan then a 3br in PS – thats fine – but to just say we are all in some delussional bubble for choosing to live here is just dumb. The issue isnt just what does it cost to live in PS but what does it cost to live in comparable neighborhoods in NYC.

    If Rushkoff wants to have a rational discussion, he’d offer some specifics about other neighborhoods, in terms of costs, crime rates and amenities

  4. Hello, did nobody notice the painful stories a couple people shared on this thread, above? To 11:58 and 1:30, sorry for your personal and/or family tragedies.

    As for one mugging being the sign of a new wave of crime, oh please. My husband got mugged on a prime, North Park Slope block about 4 years ago right outside our building. Muggings here are hardly new. Maybe if these Rushkoffs had done the research on crime in the neighborhood before they moved here, they would have been more careful and on guard.

  5. ex-Tribeca your point isnt worth mentioning b/c annecdotal accounts and pop-psycology aside it isnt true.

    Every study of crime (and even a perusal of your precinct crime stats) shows that as neighborhoods gentrify crime goes down (including robberies, etc…). People who pay a fortune to move to aneighborhood generally dont turn to violent crime.

    Street criminals aren’t generally that smart (thank god considering the Cops I know), they dont evaluate where the rich folks are; they generally dont ‘travel’; they generally prey on those weaker then them, when an ‘opportunity’ arises – which results in the fact that most criminals operate in a very small radius around where they live. This is shown in study after study and stat after stat;

    If you want to play pop-psycologist try thinking like a criminal. It is scary to rob someone (even if you got the gun) – a miriad of things can go wrong, what if they resist, what if they have a gun too, what if a cop comes by etc, etc…. It is ALOT harder and much more scary to go into a neighborhood you are unfamiliar with, where people may look at you as an outsider, and where the cops have less things to distract them then it is to find some middle-age guy walking home late at night in your ‘own’ neighborhood.

  6. I’ve read all of these posts, and the one topic no one seems to have mentioned is that if you’re living in a recently gentrified neighborhood (and I don’t know nothin’ ’bout Brooklyn/PS apart from reading this blog) criminals/muggers are going to start going there. It happened in Tribeca while I lived there. Once it started getting “yupped up”, there were a lot more muggings/pickpocketings/car break-ins.

  7. How much of Rushkoff angst is about being a victim? I think he’s latched on to the policeman’s implicit “its not you, its all of them outside this circle that caused you to be a victim” as a salve for his wound. When in fact, it may just be that he looked like a guy who would give up the goods and the same thing would have happened in LES, the Upper West Side, or the Hamptons if he came upon someone looking for a mark. Its easy to say “I pay too much money to have this happen here” but what happens if he moves to a safer, cheaper neighborhood and the same thing occurs? Where is he going then?

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