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.
Move! Who gives a f..k!
“Its a normal part of some people’s lexicon and has nothing to do with race. Theres too many race-monomaniacs here who can’t see anything other than through those spectacles.”
I have never heard a person of color use the term “element” to refer to other people . Ever. It might be “common lexicon” to you but that doesn’t dismiss it’s racially charged status.
FWIW, I am white. I have always heard the word “element” used with a voice which is lowered a little, like the speaker is telling a secret and I have never heard the word used conversationally in the presence of a person of color.
you lot are hilarious with the casual “crime happens anywhere” platitude. It won’ t be long before you’re knocked on the head like Rushkoff with that blase attitude.
If EVERY group got outraged at crime within it then things might be in a better state here. Thats the point of community. Good for him, he should be outraged. If you’ve been brutalized to accept it as not worth commenting on -then you live in a screwed up community.
12:55 and other burb-bashers, you guys need a field trip. In the past few years many of my best friends have left Brooklyn for assorted burbs. I’ve visited them all and have been quite surprised at the independent cafes and bookstores, good restaurants, art galleries and small museums that many of them live near. Yes, there are big box stores, but there has (evidently) been an explosion of good resturants and other amenities in the burbs in the last few years. I was looking through the Westchester Zagats a few weeks ago and was again surpirsed at the offerings. So feel free to hate the burbs, or the burbs of your birth, but try checking out a few places before making blanket statements.
“I got mugged in Queens”
Yeah, but I’ll bet you didn’t pay $1M+ for your house…
anon 12.31 – perhaps you misunderstood is just as much then as you do now. Its a normal part of some people’s lexicon and has nothing to do with race. Theres too many race-monomaniacs here who can’t see anything other than through those spectacles.
I lived in Seattle for a few years. One of my best friends, Brooklyn born and bred, came to visit.
She got mugged. In SEATTLE. Not that it’s not unheard of, but it’s rare (violent crime is far more common, and yes, I was there at the end of the Green River killings).
She said the reason that she got mugged was that she didn’t have her NYC defenses activated – she was in Seattle.
My sister in law’s brother was mugged and murdered a month ago in Helena, Montana. It doesn’t get any whiter, and it doesn’t get any safer. It was Helena’s first murder of the year, and it was December 8. It doesn’t matter where you live, what color you are, or what color the people around you are. Crime happens everywhere. When you are a victim, it’s terrible, no matter where you are. But I take issue with Rushkoff’s use of this incident for personal gain/trashing of an entire neighborhood. It’s sleazy, and a useless discussion.
I was mugged (with a gun to my head) in Brooklyn Heights in the 90’s. There were people up and down the street too at the same time. Crime happens- anytime, anywhere. But it is interesting that the discussion lines on this site always seem to break down along racial lines. I don’t see anyone getting overly upset at black-on-black crime- which is happens far more than interracial. Or when a Black woman is raped, which is nearly ignored as opposed to the rape of a white woman. My point is every community and group suffers from crime and every racial and cultural group perpetuates its share. We also tend to ignore the way we all help perpetuate crime- whether it’s Wall St. traders who love shoving drugs into their bodies or the hit-and-run/drunk drivers who don’t get charged with murder, the white supremacists who blow up buildings or the CEOs ripping of millions of dollars and people. We all contribute, so how about we stop making it a racial issue when it is a social one. None of us should be feeling too smug about our role.As for Mr. Rushkof and his wife- its obvious Brooklyn is not for them. They seem shocked that they found out they are not entitled to safety by virtue of where they live. Newsflash- there is no entitlement with life. Money doesn’t buy invulnerability. And terrible things happen in small towns too.