The 100 Best Things in Park Slope
Only the Blog Known Brooklyn has compiled the annual Park Slope 100: “100 stories, 100 ways of looking at the world, 100 inspiring people, places and things.” The list includes A Year in the Park’s Brenda Becker, “because in 2008 you decided to visit Prospect Park every day as an urban adventure (and, not least,…
Only the Blog Known Brooklyn has compiled the annual Park Slope 100: “100 stories, 100 ways of looking at the world, 100 inspiring people, places and things.” The list includes A Year in the Park‘s Brenda Becker, “because in 2008 you decided to visit Prospect Park every day as an urban adventure (and, not least, as a drug-free antidepressant!), and to chronicle your discoveries”; WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein, because “your reporting of Hillary Clinton’s primary campaign was always top notch, as were your stories from battleground states”; and “Jake the panhandler who stands in front of ACE Supermarket on Seventh Avenue and Berkeley Place because you’ve had a tough life, you always ask so nicely and you have such a big, warm smile.” Other mentions: Bill de Blasio, John Hodgman, D’Vine Taste and Medusa Salon. Read the full list, and if you have more, add ’em here.
Okay Benson. Don’t know why this is riling me up so much. It must be a bad morning. I ran out of my favorite cereal (Cinnamon Harvest).
But seriously, sometimes the white thing really gets to me. And I saw a preponderance of negativity and hatred for a list that took effort and thought and time and love to create. In good faith. Seeing it torn asunder with such glee was more than I could take without my breakfast.
Also, Montrose, I totally get your reaction. But sometimes, and I truly know this from experience, a panhandler or homeless person is not interested in the kind of help you were suggesting, and in fact recoils from it. They just want money or food to survive in their way, a kind word, perhaps a daily one, and acknowledgment that they are a human being.
I need breakfast.
BRG and Montrose;
I’m showing my warm and fuzzy side (which disappears during the Friday Fedder horror show).
“Aw come on,lighten up. I live in Park Slope myself. A little self-parody is always good for the soul.”
OKAY…I’m so baffled at this point!!
Nokilissa;
Aw come on,lighten up. I live in Park Slope myself. A little self-parody is always good for the soul.
I wouldn’t usually comment on something like this. But I have to completely disagree with the mention of Jake as one of the best things about Park Slope. Nothing against the homeless, but Jake has been doing this for a living for over 20 years. I grew up in the neighborhood and have worked in many establishments on 7th Avenue and know Jake from waaay back. I got tired of giving him handouts. I don’t think a homeless (allegedly) man who has made a living off of handouts from Park Slopers for over 20 years because he is pleasant and articulate deserves a mention as one of the best 100 things about Park Slope. I think we can do better than that.
Benson, I agree with BRG. Have you been replaced by a pod?
Good stuff!
Noki, it’s great that they interact with the guy, and remember him at Christmas, but somehow, it smacks of him being like a favorite mascot. If they had said they tried to get him in a program, or found housing for him, or tried to find his family, or something other than what they wrote, I wouldn’t be on their case. Now he’s like a pet. I’m probably making too much of this, and should be glad the man is getting some handouts and generosity. I’ll let it go.
“Actually it seems like ‘best places and things lists’ are extremely common. More rare to see people who are appreciated.”
Where can I find a good list of best Park slope places and things?
As for this list, it is not a list of “people who are appreciated.” It is a list of “really cool people who live where we live which means that we are really cool too!” Big difference.
Oh, now I get it. The vitriol, the race baiting, the sneering references to self congratulatory, entitled, rich, white, Spanish-speaking-“maid” users of Park Slope.
I read the list, and even looked into some of the links. Libraries, teachers, conservatories, restaurants, artists, Obama supporters, bloggers (including a hilarious black guy, and a white guy who recently lost his wife suddenly and now writes about it in order to survive the grief), authors, photographers… I get it. How ridiculous and pretentious to chronicle and congratulate or thank such people.
Benson, What is this side of you? I’m digging it!
^^^^ Maybe, I’ll regret saying this by Friday.