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.
fsrq LOL! You are right, I will forever be young at heart! :p
“Truth is Manhattan stop being “cool” in the mid ’90s….If one visits the East/ West villages or the LES on weekend nights all you will see are preps, squares, NJ/LI types and tourists…..The bars in Will-burg/Green Point, Bushwick, Fort Green/Clinton are where the hipsters, bohos and granola types dwell (myself included)”
Are you calling hipsters, bohos, granolas and yourself = Cool???
I hope not…personally it is much cooler IMHO to actually move passed putting everyone in boxes like we are all still in H.S.
Truth is Manhattan stop being “cool” in the mid ’90s with the death of the big clubs (Limelight, Twilo, etc.) If one visits the East/ West villages or the LES on weekend nights all you will see are preps, squares, NJ/LI types and tourists. The bars in Will-burg/Green Point, Bushwick, Fort Green/Clinton are where the hipsters, bohos and granola types dwell (myself included).
DOW – I agree that Bronx is much more ‘apartment house’ based than Brooklyn – but so what…..I really do not think that it is simply the brownstones that make Brooklyn – the Bronx is filled with beautiful buildings and amazing apartments (far nicer then you’d ever get in any brownstone conversion), plus it has far nicer topography then any place in Brooklyn and Manhattan (except upper Manhattan).
Personally I doubt there really will be a ‘next Brooklyn’ anyway (especially since prices will likely fall over the next few years – keeping Brooklyn as the new and old Brooklyn) – but for all those people who want to declare Philly, Yonkers, Newark, etc…. as the next Brooklyn – they really should evaluate the Bronx since it has many of the components that helped Brooklyn revitalize and it is as close (if not closer) to Midtown Manhattan.
I work in Brooklyn and never go to Manhattan anymore. the thought almost revolts me.
That being said, I never go to Sheepshead Bay, Canarsie, or Bensonhurst either.
i don’t think that many in williamsburg want to leave in the east village. it’s now fill up of frat boys and gals. the cool venues and bars are mostly in williamsburg, with the best loft parties being in Bushwick – maybe some still in LES. a 20 (almost 30) something that works for me – who is slightly more gay fashionista than hipster, but has a bit of hipster on him, said that he would flat out never live in Manhattan – go to beatrice tavern, sure, but never live outside of brooklyn because it is not cool.
There are some large sections that do have lots of rowhouses and brownstones, but the neighborhoods are not at all like brownstone Brooklyn ones. But the wonderful old apartment buildings and pre-war projects are magnificent. I grew up in one and some of my family live in another just below Riverdale. I don’t know as you can compare the Bronx and Brooklyn because the structure of the neighborhoods and the architecture are so distinctly different. Would be a fascinating study to see how the types of architecture have determined the evolution of present day neighborhoods.
“The only place that has any potential to be the ‘new’ brooklyn is – The Bronx.”
I would agree but the Bronx just doesn’t have the brownstone stock. Just a bunch of large, beautifully architectured apartment buildings. They certainly have the history though (SoBro that is).
Why can’t Manhattan be the new Disneyland and Brooklyn be the new Left Bank? That sounds much more appropriate, at least in a metaphysical sense. Am I right or am I right?