Open House Picks

Gardens gal, First of all, which anonymous poster are you talking to? I’m the one who posted at 1:01, and you can’t know me because I have no idea who you are. If you’re threatening and insulting the poor poster (and your neighbor) who was victimized in his/her own home, well that is disgusting. No wonder she/he wants to be anonymous.

The purpose of these posts is to debate specific properties and their asking prices. To say that a house is well priced because someone is willing to pay that price is truly the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.

It is clear to me that whatever benefits there may be to lefferts manor, they are certainly outweighed by having to live near narrow minded, aggressive, paranoid, and militant people like you.

Anon 1:01:

I read the posts about PLG very carefully and I know exactly what I’m reading. On other threads about PLG, purchasers of homes here have been explicity described as “stupid” for having made such a purchase or for thinking about doing so. So, let’s not try and split hairs about the insult. It’s really rather unnecessary.

And, who determines whether the prices being asked for a particular property are worth it, anyway? You think its the active posters of the Brownstoner.com community? Now there’s a stupid thought! No, my friend, that’s a market determination. If the asking price is wrong, the house won’t sell. Presumably, if the seller wants out bad enough, s/he will then make a price correction. However, if the price is right in some buyer’s eyes, well. . . there will be a sale! Get it? My question is why do people like you seem to get your bloomers all in a twist just because some folk choose to live in PLG at the prices that are being asked in today’s market? If it’s not your money, what do you care?

As for what I paid to live here. . . it’s truly none of your business. But, if you must know. . I bought my house here for more than $200k nearly 20 years ago. And I don’t think it was a stupid purchase. Indeed, given the way things are going in PLG, I think that buy was a smart one. So there!

BTW, I’m pretty sure who you are as the author of this “anonymous post.” (After hanging around these parts long enough, one tends to recognize familiar writing styles,phraseology and themes of the consistent players.) But, hey, your true identity is only a suspicion and you’re safe! Still, I wonder. How come you lack the courage to put your blogname up on this one and take some “ownership” of your stupid statements?

I too was desperately trying to not respond, bu now I have to. I live in Lefferts Manor and my house was broken into while I was home with my 4 year old. I came face to face with the intruder. It was the single most horrifying experrienc eof my life.

I hate to share that on this blog since I want prices to increase. I am desperate to leave the area, but since prices have not increased here nearly as much as they have everywhere else, there is nohwere we can afford to go.

The area has its benefis, but please do not insult us all b pretending that crime is not a serious problem.

Damn. Just when I thought I would be able to sit this one out, I find myself drawn back in!

I wish all you PLG haters with your baseless whining about violent crime in my nabe would get a grip. If you are going to make these kinds of inflammatory claims, at least provide us with truthful detail about what violent crime YOU have actually experienced in PLG. You probably won’t be able to do that because, truth is, you’ve never actually seen or experienced any crime in Prospect Lefferts Garden/Manor.

Who among the crime dramatists on this thread have supported any of their claims with fact? None! Indeed, the strongest allegation I’ve seen about “crime” in PLG so far on this blog was a recent post recently submitted by a friend of a resident (not the resident themselves, mind you) who complained about being verbally harassed by Black youths on a street corner. Give me a break! That kind of behavior may be upsetting and intimidating but IT IS NOT A CRIME.

As someone who has lived here for 2 decades, safely raised a family here and now safely walk the streets here any time of night or day that I please, I can tell you that I have never witnessed a violent crime in PLG. What I have seen are groups of young Black people who hang out on certain corners and major intersections of Flatbush and Nostrand. (I know for some of you the mere presence of young Black men in groups is enough for you to immediately fear for your lives. But sorry, group presence is not a crime.)

Yes, I’m loathe to admit that, at times, I have my own suspicions that some of these groups of young men are likely involved in the drug trade. But again — that is merely my suspicion. These young men have certainly never approached me to buy drugs from them and I have NEVER actually witnessed a drug deal go down in PLG. Nor have I have ever witnessed a mugging, shoot-out, drive-by, arson, rape, or any kind of violent crime that some of you folk are imagining to be the order of the day around here.

Does crime exist in PLG? Of course it does! I know this because there’s a precinct here and they issue reports about the crime rate all the time. I also know it because PLG has a neighborhood watch group that keeps tabs on reports of criminal incidents and arrests. However, as other, more level-headed folks on this blog have pointed out, crime exists in EVERY neighborhood. And, the bottom line of it is that the rate of crime in PLG –especially violent crime — does not place this area anywhere close to making the short list of most “unsafe” neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

If you don’t want to live in PLG, no problem. Don’t buy here. But please stop suggesting that people who make the choice to live here are “stupid” for having done so. At least please have the integrity to stop using exaggerated arguments about crime in PLG as code and subtext to cover other prejudices you have that you would rather not openly discuss.

Get a grip.

Exageratting about prices of coops in PS? I’m sorry but your post proved my point.

Sure you can find a 2 BR coop for $599k, it is definitely a shoebox, has only one bath and is probaby a 4th Fl walk up. There was one on 3rd St. b/w 6th and 7th for $649 a couple of weeks ago, it was 900 sf maybe. I don’t think there is much room for argument.

As for the house, here it is on craigslist:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/rfs/129132082.html

Listen I don’t think Lefferts is for everybody, just like I don’t think PS was for everybody 10 years. I think if you look at the crime stats from 10 years ago in PS and today in Lefferts you’d be surprise at how similar they were. Crime has fallen tremendously throughout the city. And if you think there is no crime in Park Slope, just read the blotter in one of the local papers. Plenty of people getting mugged, robbed and burgulared.

I do agree that PS had better commercial mix 10 years ago, no doubt about it. But is a huge neighborhood, 5th Ave. was no mans land and 4th Ave., only went there if you had to. But that is changing in Lefferts like the other poster mentioned.

Would love to know where the Nostrand Ave. cafe is opening up, please email me offline.