The Next New Brooklyn
We’ve been told Philadelphia is the new Brooklyn, or Brooklyn is the new Manhattan, and sometimes we’ve been told that Manhattan is the new Brooklyn. New York Magazine reprised the latter argument. Prices are falling in brownstone Brooklyn, they say —″Statistics from Streeteasy.com show 38 percent of townhouses suffering price cuts in recent months, averaging…
We’ve been told Philadelphia is the new Brooklyn, or Brooklyn is the new Manhattan, and sometimes we’ve been told that Manhattan is the new Brooklyn. New York Magazine reprised the latter argument. Prices are falling in brownstone Brooklyn, they say —″Statistics from Streeteasy.com show 38 percent of townhouses suffering price cuts in recent months, averaging an 11 percent drop”—and the market is softening in Manhattan. Given the choice between similar prices in two boroughs, apparently some people are saying, “I’ll take Manhattan”—not that we know any of them. Not to worry. Even if fewer Manhattanites have been scouring the borough for deals, all’s well here. “Brooklyn now has its own momentum,” they report. “There are far more pro-Brooklyn partisans than there used to be.” Anybody out there witnessed this move-to-Manhattan phenomenon?
Manhattan: The New Brooklyn? [New York Mag]
View of Downtown Manhattan. Photo by drunkcat.
Slappy@4:30,
preach on!! I agree with EVERYTHING you said there and hold the same sentiment.
Wow, I’m under fire.
Jwald: apparently we miscommunicated. See my previous response to 11217. Peace.
Slappy. I don’t know what further there is to say to you. You obviously do not like the recent influx of folks to Brooklyn. I do, and I doubt there is anything more I could say that would convince you. I am happy with the way things are going.
Some nice townhouse listings from that are downtown. Sorry I didn’t mean to highjack the thread.
http://newyork.craigslist.org/jsy/reo/792053163.html
http://www.theavantigroup.net/homespage2.html
http://www.delfornorealestate.com/sales.html
http://newyork.craigslist.org/jsy/reb/788918891.html
benson- I don’t get your comment at all. This discussion is silly to me because of the so-called article that spurred it. As a young minority who encountered racist remarks from whites in Brooklyn, the “social situation” is far from silly to me. My point is that while I was growing up in Brooklyn, people around me did not place such an emphasis on which neighborhood or borough was better. Hope your not trying to pick more fights.
hey benson:
So you lived in brooklyn for a lifetime and all you define it by is tribes, ethnic tension and sharpton marches??….yeah, ethnic and race tensions were rough back then….but it was rough in all nyc….until of course we were saved by displaced manhattanites looking for their annual double digit ROI’s??? Dude, you don’t sound like anyone who liked BK that much, I’m surprised you stayed…..
i guess since i grew up in gowanus, bushwick and canarsie, i wasn’t ever as scared of other tribes as much as you were….even though sharpie was marching on my block daily when i was going to school……those williamsburg kids who were “crazy” to live with those purto ricans weren’t scared like you, and they transformed it…they wouldnt trade w’b for the east ville in its current form in a million years…….its really the types who have moved into bedford corners, clinton hill, stuyvesant gardens, and fulton-narrows that want to be somewhere they are not, and the market will not be kind to speculation in the coming years…..
I’ve nothing against any person moving into my fair borough or making a bit of dough in an investment at the same time….the difference in livability, air, scale and DIVERSITY make bk what it is…..but i do have some fears of brooklyn participating in the “GREAT SORT”, where it becomes filled with people who all think the same yuppie lifestyle is the only way to fly, and sameness of thought hides a narrowness of opinion……under the guise of “common ground”
btw- my main beef with bk was the crime, but brooklyn was becoming safer by the mid-90’s and way safer by the late ’90’s. it was only then that the charms of brooklyn became known to the small time “investor” real estate mogul crowd, bitching about Section 8, “those people” rent regulation or whatever was here before they came and is now an obstacle to their nirvana. they remind me of all the people ready to jump ship and leave town in the immediate aftermath of 9/11
11217;
Perhaps we’re mis-communicating. I do think the NY article is silly. In general, I find NY Magazine to be frivolous and disconnected from the real life of NYC.
My issue with jwald is his dismissal of the discussion about the previous decline and social situation in NYC, which is the subject of Moynihan’s book. Perhaps he did so because, in his own words,he grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, when it was on its way out.
For those who have never read it, I would highly recommend Moynihan’s book. It perfectly describes the tensions between these ethnic groups at that time that led to NY’s decline from the 50’s to the early 90’s. It was a somewhat tragic situation in that each group had legitimate viewpoints and gripes, but somehow the leadsership couldn’t hammer out a workable solution
Yes Adam. Hatchet buried. Thanks for the descriptions of the neighborhood and the rundown on the housing stock.
I know that house. I actually just moved over here back in Feb of this year so I’m still exploring a bit. That house is very nice but that neighborhood is a little rough around the edges still. JC is huge city and areas West of the Highway are still tough. I’m downtown in Van Vorst park which along with Hamilton Park, Harsimus Cove and Paulus Hook make up Historic Downtown. Then you have the waterfront which is very different as it’s more like the financial district and Battery Park City mushed together and a small area of Loft buildings in the PowerHouse Arts district which has the feel of some Tribeca streets.
You can purchase 4 story townhouses for around 750-850k downtown that may need some minor work and those that are renovated into 2 Fams with a triplex owners and garden rental go for around 1 mill-1.2 mill. You can get some smaller clapboard townhouses or skinny brownstones (2 windows not 3) that need work downtown in the 400-550 range
I just looked at my last post and boy my spelling is getting atrocious. I better watch myself before the grammar police come looking.
Hey Dave, bury the hatchet? We are all here because we enjoy the same thing right?
Benson,
You don’t think it’s silly?
We all live in NYC.
What other city do you know of where there is so much infighting about moving from neighborhood to neighborhood within the same city? (Besides those cities which lie in the Middle East)
I’ve lived in quite a few cities in the U.S., and this is the first time I’ve ever experienced such a thing.
It’s wonderful to be proud of where you live and feel connected to it, but the NYMag article is not very well written.
Now the book you mention sounds much more interesting, but it also sounds to only vaguely resemble what’s being talked about in this article.