Rental of the Day: 1229 Dean Street

Very late to the party here. But this house is very familiar to me from my Crown Heights boyhood during the 1950s and early 1960s.

Not from the front, but from the back, because my family’s apartment was in one of the big apartment houses on Pacific Street and as a floor-through faced the rear gardens of houses along Dean Street.

This house and several others were the object of a painting Dad did from our roof. We’d often go up there on weekends when he’d set up a canvas and do oils of the Brooklyn skyline or the houses surrounding us. The view of Dean Street houses was particularly appealing. At the time, they were very welled maintained and painted in a variety of colors, flowers and vines crawling up their brick walls and over their wooden fences.

The rooftop was a place where Dad and I could be together. He’d paint. I’d try my hand at drawing or sit with a book. The Google satellite view catches our rooftop, right down to the stair’s bulkhead where the door rasped when we came up top, somehow making our afternoons illicit and giving me a small thrill.

Dad in his crew neck sweaters, paint-splattered chinos and tennis shoes, slim, handsome and very focused on his work. Me in my denim overalls watching quietly and in awe.

I have paintings from the rooftop to this very day.

Nostalgic on Park Avenue

Can’t help it, M4L. I live here, I live around the corner from here, as you know, and I have gay friends who live here who have not been the target of bashing. One of my tenants is a 30’s something gay white male. He has never had a problem, and he comes in all hours of the day and night. He’s brought his boyfriends here, and they have never been harassed while walking around. I know at least 2 white male gay couples and 2 white female lesbian couples who have bought property here, and all are really happy with their homes, get along with their neighbors, and are active in the community. None have ever been taunted or harassed for being gay.

I’m not denying that someone may have had a hard time, nor will I deny someone saw a drug deal. It would be absurd to do so. Crap happens everywhere, and homophobes and dealers live everywhere. Lots of people have been beaten up, or taunted and called names in the Village, for being gay. Do people then assume the Village is an anti-gay neighborhood? No. I would just like a fair telling to be had. This is NOT an anti-gay neighborhood. Anyone who is gay and is considering living here should come, walk around, check it out for themselves, talk to residents, and make their own judgements. One should definitely not use Rob as an authority on a neighborhood he has never once set foot in.

MM, dont bite. people aint looking to Rob to give reviews on crown heights, bed stuy, etc. he’s entitled to his opinions but he aint no authority folks are looking for guidance on this stuff

tpaperny — Are you really talking about LGBT? Or are you actually just talking about Lesbians (i.e., women). The safety experience is much different for gay men than it is for lesbian women. That is to say, who gets specifically targeted for ‘gay bashing’ I’m not gay, so I don’t know this from direct experience… but I know this from friends of mine. I think this is why lesbian women can be more successful as “pioneers” in gentrification.