Park Slope - Top hood in the city!

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/04/11/2010-04-11_park_slope_rises_to_the_top_bklyn_hood_is_citys_best_sez_magazine.html

Park Slopers have always thought their neighborhood was best - and now they have the stats to back it up.

The Slope topped a list of New York City hoods compiled by Nate Silver, the fivethirtyeight.com blogger and statistics geek who predicted the 2008 presidential election results with scary accuracy, for this week's New York Magazine.

"I like what it was, I like what it's become, I like the people that live here. I like the sense of tolerance," said longtime resident Louise Fisher Cozzi, 65, a jewelry designer.

The magazine's list is sure to set tongues wagging in many neighborhoods, especially those bringing up the bottom of Silver's scale.

But naysayers should know that Silver used a complicated statistical formula that factors in everything from diversity to safety to nightlife, giving housing affordability more weight than any other category.

The lower East Side came in second despite having so many run-down apartment buildings, largely because of the bars and restaurants that line its blocks.

"The clubs are great, the boutiques have helped," said Fred Brehm, 35, a filmmaker who has been living on Ludlow St. for 16 years. "There are good tattoo parlors."

But all of the nightlife - and the noisy revelers - has some lower East Siders ready to move to quieter spots.

"It's more a wild young scene than a raise-your-family scene," said Edward Yau, 32, who owns a solar power company.

He might think about a move to Sunnyside, Queens, which Silver ranked No. 3. Truly affordable, with typical two-bedrooms priced at $1,300 a month, it often gets called an "oasis."

"I like that it's still low-key. There's not a lot of chain stores. There's a lot of mom-and-pops," said Queens College student Myrna Gatica, 23, who grew up in Sunnyside. "You see the skyline of Manhattan, the bridge."

Brooklyn dominates the rest of Silver's top five, with Cobble Hill/Boerum Hill at No. 4 and Greenpoint at No. 5.

Way down at a surprising No. 50 was Central Harlem. Dashawn Jackson, 19, who grew up in the historic nabe, thinks the study missed the mark.

"They should have looked at fashion," said Jackson, who was wearing a shiny, black Moncler jacket. "People up here know how to dress."



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