Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Times writes about parts of Brooklyn they've always ignored


From the NY Times:

For much of the past century, Brooklyn was the Rodney Dangerfield of boroughs, known for its blue-collar style, for its funny accent and, of course, for getting no respect.

Then came the brownstone homesteaders and the bohemian pioneers. They turned lunch-bucket warrens in Park Slope, Dumbo and Williamsburg into glamorous destinations, drawing a flood of well-schooled young men and women who were attracted by quaint yet affordable homes, outdoor cafes, bicycle lanes and the neighborhoods’ sometimes self-parodying artisanal, sustainable and locavore ethos.

Brooklyn somehow, against all odds, became an internationally recognized icon of cool.

The sudden physical and cultural transformation has been endlessly debated. Yet to many longtime residents in some of the borough’s unaffected corners — in the rough-edged and timeless Brooklyn that has endured in places like Gerritsen Beach, Marine Park, Sheepshead Bay, Brownsville and East New York — the renaissance is still being watched with amusement, nervousness and even dismay.

In these neighborhoods, rarely mentioned in the city’s tourist literature, some shrug off the re-branding of their home borough as so much tinsel or distant thunder having little to do with their lives, while others worry about being forgotten altogether. Still others express outright resentment that they have not enjoyed the fruits of Brooklyn’s more modish reputation. Shuttered factories in places like Dumbo remind them of lost jobs rather than the expensive lofts that beckon from glossy advertisements.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it when they write about Crown Heights and Bed Sty as bastions of cool and hot neighborhoods! Yeah - go live there and find out for yourself if those areas have entirely rid themselfs of all the rapes, murders and drug addicts that creep around mugging folks. The Times writers have no history in this city - they come from Iowa and parts of the country that don't them and attempt to put lipstick on a pig by making a neighborhood cool just because their their friends live in these gritty areas.

Anonymous said...

@anonymous 1 - 90% of The NY Times' staff lives in Park Slope... which is why they write crap about "unchanged" Sheepshead Bay...

Gary the Agnostic said...

These are areas loaded with brownstones and pre-war apartment buildings. If they aren't cool now, they will be soon as the hipsters in Prospect Heights and Fort Greene expand eastward.

Al Chapman said...

There are only a handful of neighborhoods in Brooklyn that are safe.

I still find it amusing how the kids from Iowa and Nebraska look down on you because they're the "new Brooklyn." Most of them think you're so dumb that you don't even notice.

One sign, I think it was in Fort Greene, reads, "Now Leaving Safe Streets," or something like that. All it takes is for a person to look around to know that they shouldn't be there.

An example of Mayor Mike protecting his "new New Yorkers." The naive kids who think its trendy to live in a new 300 square foot shoe box apartment.

The question is: Can Mike get yuppies to eventually move into Bed Stuy and Brownsville? The writers sure try to hype it up.

Anonymous said...

To a still green newcomer from the midwest, a dark street bordered by housing projects looks cool, like a movie set. To a native new yorker, we know that you don't get mugged, or catch a bullet in the head, or get robbed every night in a bad neighborhood. It's just that one night that they get you. If you're willing to live with that and pay $2k plus a month for an illegal dump, go for it.

Anonymous said...

Don't you just love it when the local rags suddenly "discover" a "new" neighborhood, and try to sell it to death as "the next up and coming place"?? I remember when Long Island City and Astoria were "ignored", and I wish to hell that they stayed "ignored". They were more down to earth and liveable when they were "ignored".

Anonymous said...

Oceanhill/brownsville and east new york will never come back,as well as eastern bed stuy (81pct)&coney island .Too many Housing projects.......Then again the predators need fresh prey.........

Anonymous said...

Hipsters go where rents are cheap. These folks are kids who are educated but are not working and make up a theme about themselves that they chasing their dream to make it in the arts, music or startup. But essentially they are surviving on money sent them by their Parents from California or Denver etc to keep them from coming back home. Theses folks live 10 to an apartment are usually dirty because Mom is not around to wash their underwear etc and mostly survive by hooking up with younger girls who latch onto these guys. Eventually they either bog down and make it here or return to Florida or whereever they came from and go work on the nearest 7 Eleven!

Anonymous said...

The big difference is that in the other boroughs the local pols actually support their community institutions where as in Queens they are merely extensions of the clubhouse and being supported or ignored is based on your ability to give votes, provide photo ops, and advance the politicians career or (ahem) earning ability.

Goes a long way explaining why tons of money is wasted on large (safe) institutions and smaller inept ones that do their bidding, and the general level elsewhere is below the other boros in a class by itself.

Anonymous said...

The New York Times writing about Brooklyn with the wistful tone it writes with about an enclave in Tuscany or Monaco: Attractive but ultimately alien.

Anonymous said...

Not that I really care, but the more neighborhoods that the black and hispanic residents get pushed out of, the angrier they are going to become. They are being pushed further east, away from Manhattan. Eventually they will have nowhere else to go, and will be pushed into a corner. When that happens, like it or not, they are REALLY going to turn around and start fighting!

Anonymous said...

The question is: Can Mike get yuppies to eventually move into Bed Stuy and Brownsville? The writers sure try to hype it up.

THE BIG DIFFERENCE IS BROOKLYN POLS SUPPORT THEIR COMMUNITIES, QUEENS POLS VIEW THEIRS WITH CONTEMPT AND SCORN - COULD NOT CARE LESS IF THEY GET PUSHED OUT.

Anonymous said...

The question is: Can Mike get yuppies to eventually move into Bed Stuy and Brownsville? The writers sure try to hype it up.
----------------------------------
If you can get the hipsters in to push out the blacks and latinos, the yuppies will soon follow, and price the hipsters out of the hood.