Best blocks to raise a family?

mojobot2000

My husband and I currently live on the Windsor Terrace/Kensington border, which we love--it's very diverse and very family-friendly, with a down-to-earth "neighborhood" vibe on the streets. My husband works in social services (i.e. gets paid what would be a good living anywhere else, but not here), and I am a part-time freelance writer/stay-at-home-mom (i.e. make enough to cover my student loans, barely). We'd like to buy, but we simply can't afford anything with enough space for our growing family (1 kid, another on the way) in this neighborhood. Frankly, we can't afford anything much of anything without moving to Staten Island or East New York! It's depressing, but we have some savings for a down payment, and we're not ready to give up hope yet.

We'd like to look in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy, in part because my husband's office will soon be relocating to Fort Greene. I know that we're priced out of a lot of the "nicer" areas of Clinton Hill. I don't know much about Fort Greene. Searching casually, I see things in our price range in Bed-Stuy, but I never know if I'm looking at something in a good, family-friendly neighborhood, or...not.

I realize that many of these "Is it safe?" posts have race as an unspoken theme, which is a shame. I don't want this to be another "Love the real estate, too bad about all the black people" posts. FWIW, my family is white. I'm not looking for "The Next Park Slope," and I'm not interested in finding a neighborhood that I think is unpleasant now, but I hope will "come up" and make me loads of money in 10 years. I just want to find a place where I can live, pay my own mortgage instead of someone else's, and raise my kids among neighbors who are trying to do more or less the same thing. I would love it if my neighbors came in many different colors, and I don't mind being in the minority. I want to run into kids and parents I know on the playground. I want a decent public school. And I don't want to move to the suburbs. I don't even want to move to Sheepshead Bay or one of the other "outer" Brooklyn nabes. Is that really too much to ask???

If you live in the Clinton Hill/Ft. Greene/Bed Stuy area and you love your neighborhood and your neighbors, please steer me in the right direction. Much appreciated. If you'd like to tell me that I just shouldn't be thinking about buying real estate until I get that inheritance from my long-lost great-great uncle, please keep it to yourself.

nearnostrand

Look at the Stuyvesant Heights area of Bed Stuy. It's very family oriented and a visit to the shops on the tiny one block section of Lewis Ave. between Decatur and MacDonough are almost like a trip to Sesame Street. Everyone knows everyone, the little kids go to story time at the book store, parents hang out at Peaches for brunch or pop into BreadStuy for coffee. Go another block north and you're at a nice public library (closed for renovation but will reopen soon), a new general store appears to be on the way, (there's a wine bar for the adults) and there's Saraghina for pizza.

I live in Crown Heights and I love it. Should you decide to widen your search to my neighborhood, I recommend starting your search at Dean St. btwn Franklin and Kingston, and just drive or ride your bikes, or walk up and down our beautiful tree lined street. FYI - the Children's Museum is here on Brooklyn Ave. and the blocks nearby and surrounding it are residential and actually quite lovely. Even if you don't favor this area of town, you'd do yourself a favor just to come through to enjoy the children's museum and appreciate the architecture.

Good luck!

nearnostrand

Sorry! I didn't really recommend any blocks in BedStuy - here goes:

Chauncey, Bainbridge, Decatur, MacDonough, and Macon between Stuyvesant and Lewis are probably the best blocks in Stuyvesant Heights. There are other great blocks, but I'd start there and work my way around.

mojobot2000

THANKS, nearnostrand, this is exactly the kind of info I'm looking for. :-)

putnam-denizen

Another place to look is fort greene kids (FGkids@yahoogroups). I can't imagine that anything in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill will be more affordable than in Windsor Terrace. You might look in the borderland area between Clinton Hill and Bed-stuy - say between Classon and Nostrand, Fulton to Lafayette. It really is block to block, but you might find a house which is more affordable. I haven't heard anything good about the schools there. We live just west of Classon and send my son to PS 261 in Boerum Hill.