PLG Houses and Fort Greene Gardens On Sunday
This weekend is a great chance to immerse yourself in the glorious architecture of Prospect Lefferts Gardens. On Sunday from noon to 5 pm, the 36th Annual PLG House & Garden Tour will take place. Houses on display include a 1909 neo-Renaissance limestone, a 1922 Flemish bond brick and a fully restored 1899 townhouse. As…
This weekend is a great chance to immerse yourself in the glorious architecture of Prospect Lefferts Gardens. On Sunday from noon to 5 pm, the 36th Annual PLG House & Garden Tour will take place. Houses on display include a 1909 neo-Renaissance limestone, a 1922 Flemish bond brick and a fully restored 1899 townhouse. As a bonus, you’ll get a chance to check out an exhibition of Bob Marvin’s photography. Tix are $15 in advance and $20 day of. For more info call 718-462-0024 or 718-284-6210 or check out the link below.
In other tour news, the annual Brownstone Brooklyn Garden Tour will also take place on Sunday, from 11am to 5pm. This is a chance to see 15 private and 10 community gardens in Prospect Heights, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. You can pick up tickets ahead of time for $15 and $20 on the day of. Tillie’s is at 248 Dekalb. 718-707-1277.
Annual House Tour [LeffertsManor.org]
PLG House Tour [NY Times]
I’m glad you both understand. And thanks for an enlightening and helpful “conversation.”
I hear you, Anon 1:31. Like Bob, what I respect about you is that you know who you are and where your comfort threshold is! Gentrification can involve huge risks and, hopefully, even greater rewards. Still, I know it’s not for everyone. The would-be gentrifiers who trouble me the most are the ones who romanticize the process as some kind of courageous-but-wise pioneering effort but then can’t take the heat that often comes the label of “minority.”
That’s clearly not you and, in my book, it’s quite “ok” that it’s not.
I’d like to thank the anonymous poster who brought up the issue of the “divide.”
IMO his/her posts were quite thoughtful. We’ll have to agree to disagree about how common this “divide” is in urban life, but I appreciate his/her honesty in concluding that an “‘in transition’ area isn’t right for me.”Its true–its NOT for everyone and we might as well acknowlege that. The fact that an area like PLG IS fine “for me” doesn’t give me any claim to moral superiority and doesn’t make me especially brave (since I’ve always felt safe here). I guess, for better or worse, it just means that my priorities,or expectations, or SOMETHING, are different.
Thanks GG, I appreciate your sharing your perspective and perception. I suppose in the end a low-income “in transition” area isn’t right for me. Displaying the attitude you speak of takes effort for me and isn’t something I want to do on a daily basis. Perhaps that’s a failing on my part, but so be it. Again, thanks for responding.
Sorry, I meant to say 3rd, 4th or 5th AVENUES, of course!
I am a resident of PLG who is also not trying to get involved in an argument, but who definitely does not share your feelings. As a matter of fact, as one who owns a beautiful home in the one of the areas of greater PLG that Bob Marvin mentioned, I do NOT have to cross “the divide” in order to get to the subway, park, or anywhere. But, even if I did, or when I do, it’s no big deal.
Yes, Flatbush Ave can be quite loud and edgy at times. It’s a major commercial thoroughfare in a low-income, neighborhood of color in NYC, after all. But, navigating it is all about attitude. If you are looking for trouble — meaning you think and behave with an air that sends a message to everyone on the strip that you think they are out to get you –well … you can probably think that dynamic into existence.
BTW, there are many such divides that exist in low income neighborhoods which are currently “in transition” all over Brooklyn. I’m thinking parts of Fulton Street, Washington Avenue, Myrtle Avenue, Eastern Parkway, Atlantic Avenue, 3rd, 4th and 5th Streets, just for starters. In that context, I see Flatbush Avenue, neither as a particularly dangerous thoroughfare nor as an anomaly in the urban social geography.
I feel that Flatbush is pretty much the same from downtown Brooklyn, through Park Slope, Lefferts, and beyond. It has a life of its own.
I was in Cobble Hill and the Slope for those 44 years. Flatbush in the slope is nothing at all like the areas surrounding PLG (and never was). Other areas have divides, but you don’t have to cross them on a daily basis–that’s the big differnce. In PLG you need to cross the divide to get to the subway, park, or anywhere. Anyway, I wasn’t trying to start an argument, just sharing my perception and seeing if residents of the area had similar feelings. I guess not…
uhh? Are you serious? There is that divide in MOST of brooklyn today (victorian flatbush for example) and over the last 44 years it existed in the more established parts of park slope (flatbush ave, propect heights, south slope), boreum hill (projects), ft. greene and on and on. You must have been holed up on cranberry street for those 44 years.