Sterling Place

I also live on this block. I love it. I have kids; we feel safe.

Hey bklnbonnie, I think I'm your neighbor. I live upstairs in the house where the landlady will not replace the tree. I heard it one of the first to be hit by longhorn beetles.

When I was moving in, they were replacing the cement in the yard and sidewalk, and the landlady wasn't around. I tried so hard to get them to build a treewell! We called her, and she refused, saying "trees fall down, and are dangerous". My reply was, "yeah, in 50 or 75 years". No dice. :roll:

Despite no tree, I love the block.

apollonia666 wrote: Trees are dangerous! Oy vey.

That kind of perfectly illustrates how crazy your landlady is, no?

It's called "tip of the iceberg". :?

At least we're not totally denuded of trees like poor Rogers Ave.

Anyone catch the "dueling backyard parties" last night? LOUD. At least it didn't go on all night.

No, but I'm across the street from it, and have been really curious about those apts. Are they big? Because they sure look like it from the outside. Good rents?

Masha99 wrote: Too bad re the tree. This is my husband's personal pet peeve. He would love to see more leafy green on the block.

As a long time brownstone resident, the tree in front of the house is a double edge sword. While the trees are young, you have to be on guard for kids who jump and swing on the small trees and break off the limbs. For mature trees you have to worry about roots damaging foundations and water/sewer lines and limbs falling off during storms. Backyard trees need to be trimmed and groomed every year.

Then there are the practical problems like people using them as bathrooms, throwing trash into the treewells and taking the presence of a tree as an invitation to hang out.

Yes, the trees are nice, but for some residents (especially the elderly) they can be a lot of work.

I'm across the street also (SJE, lean out and wave at me.) I got to see a ground floor apartment. They seem nice and Rupert, the super, keeps the common area well maintained from what I can tell. The rents sound reasonable as well to me.

db, you might be a racist. keep an eye on that.

That does indeed seem uncalled for.

Just a reminder of the user rules for these discussion boards:

-Be nice. If you can't be nice, go to a different website.
-"Nice" does not mean kittens and rainbows. More like, "general level of civil decorum." It's OK to argue and disagree, and in fact we encourage it, but don't stoop to personal attacks, name calling, shouting "YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF GENTRIFYING YUPPIES", or other childish behavior.

Calling someone a racist is pretty inflammatory, and saying someone "might be" one isn't much less so, especially in response to a pretty innocuous post and without any evidence to back it up.

young snitch wrote: i'm all for cordiality, online and off, but is there the slightest chance in the universe that db would have rushed online to inquire about the safety of the street if he saw a couple white people outside smoking weed?

living in this area might enhance db's understanding of society and improve his comfort level amongst people of different ethnicities than his own, but the recent deluge of new residents frightened of the people they're supplanting is a major reason the development of this neighborhood is so stunted. watch them scuttle down the street like nervous crabs - eyes down, heads bowed and shoulders tight - trying to make it back to the safety of their apartments with "stay alert, stay alive" echoing through their noggins.

Thank you for explaining what you meant. I think that's a far more persuasive way of making your point than just saying "hey, you might be a racist."

disagreeing that franklin avenue is a bullet-riddled, corpse-draped hellhole = troll. opining that someone who is frightened of a couple black kids smoking weed is likely struggling with a boatload of internal prejudice = troll. providing information on the lounge/bar opening up on franklin and park place = troll?

the overwhelming majority of posts on the crown heights board are from new residents nervous about gunshots, assaults and crime. i could care less who's a gentrifier or who's a yuppie -- so stop taking criticism towards the board's zeitgeist of fear and general lameness as an indictment of an entire demographic. the segment of the ven diagram where gentrifier/yuppies and shook ones overlap just seems to include a lot of the people who make these posts.

young snitch wrote: disagreeing that franklin avenue is a bullet-riddled, corpse-draped hellhole = troll. opining that someone who is frightened of a couple black kids smoking weed is likely struggling with a boatload of internal prejudice = troll. providing information on the lounge/bar opening up on franklin and park place = troll?

the overwhelming majority of posts on the crown heights board are from new residents nervous about gunshots, assaults and crime. i could care less who's a gentrifier or who's a yuppie -- so stop taking criticism towards the board's zeitgeist of fear and general lameness as an indictment of an entire demographic. the segment of the ven diagram where gentrifier/yuppies and shook ones overlap just seems to include a lot of the people who make these posts.

Let me just clarify, he did not say what color the people who were smoking were. As a lifelong resident of this area I surely do not want it to go back to way it was in the 80's. At that time people we hostage to the crack dealers, and thugs of this neighborhood. Many of the residents would race home before it got dark, lock their doors draw their curtains and stay away from windows. We never had a message board such as this to comment on and pass the word around at the time we relied on word of mouth. Before I learned to cross the street I learned how to duck for cover or hit the ground if I heard a loud pop. I remember the dread that we felt. And it took a long time for this neighborhood to be claimed once again by its residents.

I agree 100% young snitch that this is fantastic neighborhood which has improveed 1000% percent since those days. Most life-long neighbors are able to sit outside, children are allowed to stay out and play ball on the street. I will even allow my child to go off our block to play with his friends in the schoolyard. But you have to realize that in order to keep it this way we must be vigilant and stand our ground and let the drug dealers as well as the troublemakers know that we will not put up with this again. This means taking action as soon as it happens. So when people come on this board and talk about the crime that they are witnessing we cannot dismiss it as fear of the unknown we must support it with the fear of history repeating itself.

you both said it well, thanks.

only to add that I think making this about race is misguided and a waste of our good energy.