journalist request: (still) hating on the Slope
Comments
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filmlover44 wrote: i don't smuggly dissaprove of anyone except for drunks and assholes.
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"WTGirl" wrote:
or maybe he/she just hangs out with the kind of people who don't waste their energy hating a neighborhood or a city or calling people nazis. I know which kind of person I would prefer to spend my time with.
But of course, that is your experience and perhaps you are in your early 20s and meeting different people then I meet who are in their 30s, 40s etc.
Everyone and their mother has used the "nazi" thing: Stroller nazis, nipple nazis, organic nazis oh wait...."SOUP NAZI" started the dated trend. I never thought of Seinfeld as particularly offensive.
All I am saying is there are all kinds of people in the world and one lifestyle isn't better then another. I don't think choosing to live in NY is the end all. It is one choice of many kinds of lives to lead--and some of those choices are pretty interesting. And most people choose NOT to live here for various reasons. -
belzjm wrote: "And it is the reason that EVERYONE hates NYers"
I meet people from all over too, but half of them hate New York City -- and their hatred covers all five boroughs.
that has been the exact opposite of many of my experiences with other people.
most people i meet from other states, other cities and other countries would give their left arm to live in new york city, if they could.
An arm... ? A pinkie yes, a foot never. An arm? Hmmm...only if I got free living in a nice, big place in a safe, fun neighborhood plus free health care with no real need to work and could still get laid without the arm. -
i really don't want to feed into the anger frenzy that is wtgirl, but there is a reason new york is the largest city in the united states. we weren't all forced to come here. a lot of people DO enjoy living here, clearly. over 8 million, in fact.
but of course there are many that do not. that's a given and quite frankly a little too captain obvious for two grown adults to bicker over. i happen to come into contact with many people who do like new york and would like to live here. being different from you is ok, is it not?
from where i stand, you have said the most hateful and blatantly stereotypical things so far on this thread.
i think this new york magazine article should instead focus on why YOU seem to hate park slope and maybe even the world for that matter. seems much more factually based than anything else being talked about with reference to a huge neighborhood full of people.
you have produced more negativity on this thread than any other by suggesting that somehow i am wrong to love where i live. i NEVER suggested others should want what i want or like, but simply stated that there are plenty of families...white, black, hispanic, asian, that have roots in brooklyn and in park slope who have raised families here for generations and who are not able to afford to live here anymore. that sucks. i wasn't referring to some seemingly very bitter woman who has since moved to windsor terrace.
ironically....those people who have been long time park slopers and are finding it increasingly difficult to to make a go of it here are not the people spreading all this vitriol about park slope moms, strollers, milfs and tea lounge crap. it's people like you who have a bone to pick with yourself and take it out on others.
and while i do often get told i look like i'm in my late 20's, i haven't been for quite a while now.
sorry to disappoint. -
Subject: it is what it is
People hate on the Slope for the same reason anyone hates on something...jealousy. There are too many things to list about the place that make it great. It is not homogenous. I've wandered the neighborhood at all times of day and night, weekdays and weekends, and the variety of people is one of it's finest assets. It's close to the city, it has a great park, great restaurants, great cultural institutions. It's a relaxing break from Manhattan where lots of us work and it is a neighborhood full of singles, families, young, old, etc. Go anywhere in the city (or outside of it) and people and things will appear that can annoy. As its value (not just real estate) increases so does the jealousy (what you call hatred). whatev. they don't have to come here. We're just fine without them. -
Subject: Re: it is what it is
crunchberry wrote: People hate on the Slope for the same reason anyone hates on something...jealousy. There are too many things to list about the place that make it great. It is not homogenous. I've wandered the neighborhood at all times of day and night, weekdays and weekends, and the variety of people is one of it's finest assets. It's close to the city, it has a great park, great restaurants, great cultural institutions. It's a relaxing break from Manhattan where lots of us work and it is a neighborhood full of singles, families, young, old, etc. Go anywhere in the city (or outside of it) and people and things will appear that can annoy. As its value (not just real estate) increases so does the jealousy (what you call hatred). whatev. they don't have to come here. We're just fine without them.
Many people don't even know what Park Slope is and hate all of "crowded, dirty" New York City and love living in the country. Outside of New York City, many folks think we all live in midtown and hang out at Macy's.
All of us New Yorkers should stick together and share our New York pride rather than fight each other.
Real New Yorkers should not trash each others' neighborhoods.
Love Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and even Staten Island. If you're a real New Yorker, throw any hate you have some where else. -
raw wrote: Love Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and even Staten Island. If you're a real New Yorker, throw any hate you have some where else.
@import url(http://skreemr.com/styles/embed.css);
Beasty Boys - An Open Letter to NYC 
Found at skreemr.com 
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Uh-oh.
The grande dame [or yet another stereotype, someone who is 50 acting like 25] speaks!
http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com/only_the_blog_knows_brook/2008/02/here-we-go-agai.html -
I think there's always trade offs in any place you choose to live. For me, the reasons I choose to live in New York mostly have to do with all of the cultural experiences that just can't be had anywhere else in the country that I can think of. I also don't need to have a car, which is fantastic.
Basically, if it weren't for those things, I might consider leaving. Because I really do dislike the crowds, the smells and the weather. Coming from California, the weather here just sucks most of the year.
I think I have a love/hate relationship with this town for sure. But at least it's never boring! -
"filmlover44" wrote: [quote=WTGirl]
I never, ever use the "Nazi" thing. My parents were children during WWII. As a youth, they took me on a tour of Europe back in the day when people still remembered what a Nazi was. Many of the people I know are the children and grandchildren of holocaust survivors. So, whether or not you think that it's offensive to use the term "Nazi" to refer to a few obnoxious Mother's really doesn't make one bit of difference to me.
Everyone and their mother has used the "nazi" thing: Stroller nazis, nipple nazis, organic nazis oh wait...."SOUP NAZI" started the dated trend. I never thought of Seinfeld as particularly offensive. -
i find the word nazi offensive in this instance for sure.
comparing it to the "soup nazi" on a fictional television show and then somehow relating it to REAL women raising children in our city just shows pure ignorance.
nothing more. nothing less. -
Filmlover44: Sorry to have offended. It is just one of those stupid phrases that is part of the cultural zeitgeist. I think the phrase is tired anyway and only used it as a cultural shorthand. I will drop it.
Belzjm: Just back off already and please stop misinterpreting my words--I find that tedious. -
you only find me tiresome and quarrelsome because i live in park slope.
had i said i lived in windsor terrace or the upper west side or ft. greene, you'd be fine with it.
so tedious -
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I created an account because I wanted to respond to this topic.
I'm a native Brooklynite, and I can tell you why I hate Park Slope. It has nothing to do with jealousy or location envy as I have no desire to live there. One of my friends used to own a brownstone in prime Park Slope, 7th Avenue and 15th street. We had a weekly TV date and visiting her there was a harrowing experience. The main reason? The neighborhood residents. The sidewalks are just too narrow for that much human and stroller traffic. Just the few blocks from the subway to her house was enough to put me a bad mood. Men in business suits acting as if they were in a race to get home pushing past you. Mommies with those ubiquitous strollers and spoiled, overindulged children. Both try to crowd you on the sidewalks or even drive you into the street! The neighborhood seems wildly overpopulated at this point. Don't even get me started on the shops! Full of overpriced crap designed to appeal to area residents' egos and pretensions to wealth.
Funnily enough, the things that bug me about Park Slope, don't trouble me at all when they are replicated in Manhattan. I expect Manhattan to be elitist and overrun with bars, restaurants and people living in TV fantasy versions of 'New York". But to see it happen to my beloved borough truly bothers me. Maybe it's because I like the idea of Brooklyn being an antidote to the ills of Manhattan. I want the streets to be quieter, the pace slower, the neighborhoods diverse. Brooklyn should be a respite from Manhattan, not an extension of it. A comfy, sweet, charming, mostly residential Brooklyn helps me to enjoy Manhattan. However, if the entire city becomes Manhattan, then everything becomes detestable. New York City will become a terrible place to live. Park Slope represents everything I do not want to see Brooklyn become. But as people get priced out of PS, and start to move into other neighborhoods, pushing out the longtime residents who can no longer afford to live in the neighborhoods they grew up in, carrying with them their desires and delusions about what living in New York is like: demanding a Starbucks and a Barnes and Noble around the corner, causing stupid trendy restaurants and antique shops to sprout up where the corner store used to be, etc, Brooklyn starts to become more and more intolerable.
It's all starting with Park Slope and that's why I hate it. -
So much energy on hating! My goodness.
The only reason that you don't care about what happens to Manhattan is because you are not from there. I have lived in Chelsea, the Lower East Side and even the Upper-Upper West Side (90's) and watched those neighborhoods change dramatically and yet hate none of them. Go figure.
I Do hate the fact that people are getting pushed/priced out of their homes, but I think we've established that this isn't limited to Park Slope. -
bklyngrlie wrote: I created an account because I wanted to respond to this topic.
Great post!!
I'm a native Brooklynite, and I can tell you why I hate Park Slope. It has nothing to do with jealousy or location envy as I have no desire to live there. One of my friends used to own a brownstone in prime Park Slope, 7th Avenue and 15th street. We had a weekly TV date and visiting her there was a harrowing experience. The main reason? The neighborhood residents. The sidewalks are just too narrow for that much human and stroller traffic. Just the few blocks from the subway to her house was enough to put me a bad mood. Men in business suits acting as if they were in a race to get home pushing past you. Mommies with those ubiquitous strollers and spoiled, overindulged children. Both try to crowd you on the sidewalks or even drive you into the street! The neighborhood seems wildly overpopulated at this point. Don't even get me started on the shops! Full of overpriced crap designed to appeal to area residents' egos and pretensions to wealth.
Funnily enough, the things that bug me about Park Slope, don't trouble me at all when they are replicated in Manhattan. I expect Manhattan to be elitist and overrun with bars, restaurants and people living in TV fantasy versions of 'New York". But to see it happen to my beloved borough truly bothers me. Maybe it's because I like the idea of Brooklyn being an antidote to the ills of Manhattan. I want the streets to be quieter, the pace slower, the neighborhoods diverse. Brooklyn should be a respite from Manhattan, not an extension of it. A comfy, sweet, charming, mostly residential Brooklyn helps me to enjoy Manhattan. However, if the entire city becomes Manhattan, then everything becomes detestable. New York City will become a terrible place to live. Park Slope represents everything I do not want to see Brooklyn become. But as people get priced out of PS, and start to move into other neighborhoods, pushing out the longtime residents who can no longer afford to live in the neighborhoods they grew up in, carrying with them their desires and delusions about what living in New York is like: demanding a Starbucks and a Barnes and Noble around the corner, causing stupid trendy restaurants and antique shops to sprout up where the corner store used to be, etc, Brooklyn starts to become more and more intolerable.
It's all starting with Park Slope and that's why I hate it. -
bklyngrlie wrote: I created an account because I wanted to respond to this topic.
Good for you grlie.
I'm a native Brooklynite, and I can tell you why I hate Park Slope. It has nothing to do with jealousy or location envy as I have no desire to live there. One of my friends used to own a brownstone in prime Park Slope, 7th Avenue and 15th street. We had a weekly TV date and visiting her there was a harrowing experience. The main reason? The neighborhood residents. The sidewalks are just too narrow for that much human and stroller traffic. Just the few blocks from the subway to her house was enough to put me a bad mood. Men in business suits acting as if they were in a race to get home pushing past you. Mommies with those ubiquitous strollers and spoiled, overindulged children. Both try to crowd you on the sidewalks or even drive you into the street! The neighborhood seems wildly overpopulated at this point. Don't even get me started on the shops! Full of overpriced crap designed to appeal to area residents' egos and pretensions to wealth.
Funnily enough, the things that bug me about Park Slope, don't trouble me at all when they are replicated in Manhattan. I expect Manhattan to be elitist and overrun with bars, restaurants and people living in TV fantasy versions of 'New York". But to see it happen to my beloved borough truly bothers me. Maybe it's because I like the idea of Brooklyn being an antidote to the ills of Manhattan. I want the streets to be quieter, the pace slower, the neighborhoods diverse. Brooklyn should be a respite from Manhattan, not an extension of it. A comfy, sweet, charming, mostly residential Brooklyn helps me to enjoy Manhattan. However, if the entire city becomes Manhattan, then everything becomes detestable. New York City will become a terrible place to live. Park Slope represents everything I do not want to see Brooklyn become. But as people get priced out of PS, and start to move into other neighborhoods, pushing out the longtime residents who can no longer afford to live in the neighborhoods they grew up in, carrying with them their desires and delusions about what living in New York is like: demanding a Starbucks and a Barnes and Noble around the corner, causing stupid trendy restaurants and antique shops to sprout up where the corner store used to be, etc, Brooklyn starts to become more and more intolerable.
It's all starting with Park Slope and that's why I hate it.
Not only was this post bitter and angry, it is also full of shit.
Weekly TV dates, unless you are watching wheel of fortune or the early local news, don't happen when parent's are out pushing kids in strollers. They happen later in the evening - around 8 or 9pm. Most children, even the spoiled and overindulged ones of park slope, are getting put to bed at that time. Maybe the poster just IMAGINED fighting for space on the sidewalk with those evil mommies of park slope.
Such anger and bitterness. Can't we move on already? -
i agree jamzer.
grlie officially takes the cake for the most ridiculous post on the thread.
maybe "tv nights" was a judge judy marathon?
after 8pm, 7th avenue is DEAD.
men in business suits??
i thought everyone says all the men in park slope dress in pleated cords and crocs...which is it??? -
So my post isn't valid because I didn't explain my TIMING? Yeah, that makes sense.
Let me break it down for all of the timekeepers on the thread. I'd leave work between 5:30 and 6pm. Get to PS in about 30 min. I'd take the hideous and dreadful walk to her house. My friend and I would chat for a couple of hours, catch up on our lives, and then watch our reality shows.
Satisfied? Sorry if you don't agree with my opinions but they are formed based on my real experiences. Hopefully, the journalist writing the article finds it useful.
P.S. I also visited another friend of mine who lives on Prospect Park West on the weekends. That's when I got full view of the twee shops, the celebs who the other residents pretended not to see but surreptitiously gawked at, and the pretentious brunch places. One weekend, she made me go to Two Boots for her kid's birthday party. That was hell on earth, a room full of spoiled Park Slope brats and their miserable parents. Never to be repeated again. -
I've seen those men in business suits. I think it's a cult. I secretly took this shot last summer near the park, but was afraid to reveal it until now. It's scary. Could 7th Ave and 3rd Street be next?
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"Jamzer" wrote:
Jamzer and Belzjm--I thought the mod asked to cut the name calling--anyone who has opinions differentn from you is bitter.Why not let people express ideas different from yours and then argue their ideas! It is really frustrating to be shut down with name calling instead of arguing just the topic at hand.
Not only was this post bitter and angry, it is also full of shit.
Such anger and bitterness. -
no grlie, your post wasn't valid because it was so obviously bitter, hateful and absurd.
had nothing to do with the timing.
that was just an added bonus. -
actually wtgirl....i said the post was bitter. not the person. big difference. everyone is entitled to their opinion.
you were attacking people, not their words.
funny that you have now edited your post and used my word TEDIOUS even though you posted before i did.... -
I just don't get it. My wife and I moved here from the West coast a few months back and have no problems. We don't LOVE park slope, but absolutely do not see why people would hate it.
Granted, I've only been here 6 months, but I've just never really seen the vast majority of what the people who do not live in this neighborhood see. Also, I've been here much longer than all the posts claiming they have any idea of the neighborhood as they've been here once or twice. Please.
The sidewalks are not too small and not overcrowded with strollers. I love too that one would compare the sidewalks in Park Slope, claiming overcrowded, with Manhattan. I enjoy Manhattan as well, but come on... you cannot compare the two regarding size and crowdedness.
And yes, there are overpriced stores, pretentious people, etc. etc. There are also some incredibly welcoming and wonderful people (the majority of my neighbors, thank god).
Regardless, I don't have anything to add to this discussion other than the fact that people saying they walked through park slope once or twice and encountered a rude parent need to stop overgeneralizing and realize the world is full of them. And full of people who jump to conclusions far too quickly.
Oh, but I will say that one time I went to the Upper West Side and a homeless person asked me for change. Glad I I know now that everyone in the Upper West Side is homeless and ask for change. -
people saying they walked through park slope once or twice and encountered a rude parent need to stop overgeneralizing and realize the world is full of them.
I didn't walk through there "once or twice". I visited often and still do on occasion. I grew up in Brooklyn. I went to the BPL in Grand Army Plaza every Saturday when I was a kid. I've been to the Green Market, the co-op, the NYSC, etc. I know that neighborhood as well as others in Brooklyn quite well, thanks.
I wish people that had differing opinions didn't overgeneralize and assume that everyone who doesn't share their experience is bitter, hateful or wrong. -
fair enough bkgrlie...
how about you tell us where you live so we can pick apart your neighborhood by making huge generalizations about a large number of people based on an incident or two...? -
this thread is making me rethink my un-hatred.
oh diverse and tolerant park slope, save me from your defenders.
on a moderate note: please remember that the first rule of the thread is BE NICE. that does include not calling other posters names, but it extends beyond that. -
I thought bklyngrlie's post was excellent, in spite of the fact that I love Park Slope. She perfectly expressed what many native Brooklynites (e.g. Restless Native) apparently feel about the increasing gentrification/ Manhattanization of brownstone Brooklyn.
I grew up hundreds of miles away from New York City, and lived in the vicinity of City College and Columbia when I first came to New York. I then moved to the upper East Side, and then to 15th St and 2nd Avenue in Manhattan.
After living in those areas, Park Slope (in 1976) was practically country living, and I loved it. It was a respite from my weekdays working in midtown Manhattan.
So bklyngrlie echoes my own feelings (for different reasons) when she talks about Park Slope becoming more crowded than it used to be, and having more wealth than it used to have.
Lest anyone think I resent the well-to-do, I'm a lawyer who owns a brownstone and a brand new fancy-schmancy German car.
It's just that working in Manhattan involves a daily subway commute, and living in NYC involves heavy traffic and delays any time you try to get in or out of the city (try leaving midtown to head upstate or to the Jersey Shore on a Friday afternoon or early evening), and generally high stress levels.
So it was nice to be able to kick back on weekends in a low-stress, relaxed neighborhood that resembled Manhattan not at all.
That is now more difficult than it used to be.
For those people who grew up in Brooklyn, the changes and the displacements have got to be even more unwelcome. It is understandable if they're a little bitter.
Those of you who only recently moved to Brooklyn are entitled to love the neighborhood... but you really shouldn't dismiss and express contempt at the attitudes of those who remember it before... it does not reflect well on you. -
thing is...nearly every neighborhood on the east and west coasts have tripled in value over the last 10 years.
even those of us not born in nyc, probably could not afford much in our suburban towns. i sure couldn't.
so does that mean we should all start hating where we came from because now it's become too unaffordable? i'm being serious. is that the issue?
as i said before, i do feel for people who have deep roots in ps and can no longer stay, but i wouldn't be able to afford a place where i grew up either and it also now has a starbucks and barnes and noble which was not there when i lived there.
isn't that the case with most places near a large east or west coast city these days?
i think the real issue at large is why park slope has been singled out for something that many MANY parts of the country are dealing with these days.
listen, i'm going to love it no matter what, (and no, not for the starbucks which i "hate" or the b&n, which i won't shop at, but mostly for the architecture, the park, the eco-friendly attitude, everything within walking distance, the community spirit, etc) but i really just don't see how this is a story.
i think park slope is a scapegoat for all that people feel is wrong with society. it's easy to hate something you don't understand or can't control, i suppose.
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