Why does everyone hate Park Slope?

Brilliant, thanks for starting this thread.

I love Park Slope because after 2 years of living in a high rise in Tribeca, I never had a neighbor say "good morning" yet the first day I moved into this Brownstone 2 neighbors came down to welcome me with sweets in hand.

I love Park Slope because I can run to the Tasty Delight at 10PM in my sweats and no one looks twice.

Have to get back to work but I'll be back with more later tonight.

I love that I can sit in my garden and work from home on Friday's instead of sitting in a tiny bedroom with my laptop on my bed because there was no room for desk.

Sorry, those are someone else's kids. Mine are only outside being annoying in the afternoons. At night, they are home annoying me.

Why do people love short buildings so much again?

laura wrote: I've lived in the Slope for 15 years. I've really loved it but now I'm starting to hate it because it's become so fashionable that I'm getting priced out ... the company that took over my building is now charging $2000 for 500 sq ft apartments with no closets. :roll: The real estate greed around here is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

I hope you don't have to move. What are you looking for, in what price range? Maybe someone here will know of something.

I also hate the fact that friends of mine have been priced out of the neighborhood. (I've lived here about exactly as long as you have.) And it's mainly only by luck (buying early) that I haven't. But I don't get how charging the market rate for an apartment = "greed." Any more than charging the market rate for a steak, or a bunch of flowers, or a pair of shoes.

In any case the whole cost-of-living issue proves why the "everyone hates Park Slope" idea is so silly.

Why does everyone hate Park Slope? Because it's so expensive. In other words, why does everyone hate Park Slope? Because so many people want to live there!

Do they all hate themselves?

Rose wrote: [quote=belzjm]i like that there's nice people in the slope like rose seems to be.

you rock, rose.

Aw, that's sweet. I'm not really that nice. And my kids are among those annoying teenagers congregating on 7th Avenue and in the Tea Lounge. But I do clean up after my dogs.

I think that it's a great place for my kids to BE annoying teenagers and I really like the fact that there is a place like the Tea Lounge for them to hang out in (and no, they are not the noisy ones, but if they are - go ahead and call 311).

I don't know the ages of the ones that hang out at night on 7th but they worry me because I've seen some of them pretty high, sprawled out on the sidewalk in front of the school. There's drug activity going on for sure.

I love pedestrian communities. I feel liberated living without a car.

I love the Slope because the cops tonight nailed some guido garbage truck guys who were roaring the wrong way up 7th Avenue while doing their commercial pickups, downshifting and making backup noises.
Steroid-boys went limp at the glare of NY's finest and their ticket book.

1st_Streeter wrote: I don't know the ages of the ones that hang out at night on 7th but they worry me because I've seen some of them pretty high, sprawled out on the sidewalk in front of the school. There's drug activity going on for sure.

Years ago me and the rest of the native kids who hung on 9th and 7th used to keep that yuppie teen misbehavior to a minimum when we ran the Ave at night.. used to prey on those kids like lambs, lol..

However now that we're all grown and have left the streets behind, it seems that without natural predators (Black/Puerto Rican/working-class white kids) to keep their numbers in check, the wild priviledged youth in front of Pino's has swelled to maximum capacity. Even had one curse me one time when I worked on 7th - of course he was completely shocked when I let him know that he was in serious danger of getting smacked in the mouth. :-#

Yuppie kids + physical discipline = alien combination as we all know.

Actually a few years back Park Slope below 8th Ave was pretty diverse. Between 8th and Park is where "old money" residents lived, and still might live. Between 8th and 7th you had a mix of middle class and upper middle class Irish, Italian, Jewish and some black families. Below 7th was racially and ethnically mixed middle and lower middle class. 5th Ave and below (depending which block you were on) wasn't poor but it bordered on it. The changeover towards the lifestyle we see now started happening back when my family moved here in '75. The original residents stayed for a few years but you saw the changes happening little by little, beginning in the '80's with such stores such as Bennetton opening up. Another change gradually saw the increase of a strong gay and lesbian community, who had money, then PS started turning into a place where race, creed, religion, sexual preference, etc, didn't matter as long as you had cash. Then it started turning into the neighborhood we have now. Which I'm not against, however, I do like making fun of you, the "Imports" that decide to live here. My only laments are that the quality of shopping and eateries has gone down considerably and I fear the new residents are not street smart savvy.

I think one fact that us Natives should keep in mind is that most of Brooklyn is losing its own, not just the Slope. We have become a hot place to live in the eyes of the world. The day of the Brooklynese accent becoming extinct is at hand. I also believe that a lot of us (not all, obviously) have moved because of choice not economics. Even I get tired of the filthy streets and odors and the rat race. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, even Staten Island starts looking good after awhile.

Then again if the economy collapses soon like I believe it will and the City keeps raising taxes on property, water, auto, etc, Kings County will end up with a whole bunch of vacant, new construction condo high rises. The City will probably force the landlords to fork over the vacant spaces to the under $50,000 a year families, which in turn will depress the surrounding neighborhoods which in turn you will see a good amount of flight.

1) That big green thing 2 blocks from my house
2) my lovely tree-lined street
3) the beautiful buildings
4) walking down 15th Street and seeing the optical illusion that the Statue of Liberty is attached to the end of the street somehow
5) some of the great stores - like Krupa Grocery and Slope Cellars

Brooke Lynn Knight wrote:
Anyway, Charles, your post says it all, and much better than I could. (And I love your icon. Where'd you get it, if you don't mind my asking?)

Thanks BLK ... the icon is from an old coffee house in Rhode Island I use to manage. Inhouse art, though I think it was purchased.

On the issue of residential makeup, Park Slope has always been a mix. I remember my friends on the block were from absolutely every domination ... irish, black, chinese, arab, South American, etc, etc. Because most of the neighborhood was working class since at least the 1940's, except for the top part of the neighborhood, the diversity was always unique and exceptional.

The "gentrification" of the Park Slope, beginning around 1994, has definitely changed the dynamic, but I would state it really hasn't changed as much as people think. Yes, there are definitely more professionals in the neighborhood, and many big property purchases I know about are either corporate real estate co. or affluent individuals. But I would state the inter-mix of different people has probable increased. Before, you might have a block with 3/4 irish, or spanish, ... now, its people from everywhere in the United States, including many foreign nationals. And not to forget, I believe Park Slope has one of the largest communities of lesbian residents, something that was not true before 1970.

I believe the dynamic and quality of the diversity is changing, not so much determined by color as economic stratification. Determinations of the change in this dynamic based on the color of one's skin are rendered less reasonable a gauge when you consider there are 192 countries in the world, 50 United States, and a whole lot of mixing going on.

Besides, the U.S. and N.Y. Constitutions, as properly interpreted, demand a classless society that is color neutral when it comes to determinations of fairness and justice.



Park Slope was never a great neighborhood because the amount of white or non-white people, (whatever these terms mean, if any), lived here. It was and it is a great neighborhood because there is a mix of diversity, in every gauge you can think of, that puts it in a special place among the many neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

Without economic diversity, however, Park Slope will lose it's Brooklyn character.

I wish people would focus on this issue more.

Charlesbklyn

I'm pretty sure that gentrification started in park slope way before 1994! I lived in the South Slope (not too far from where I am now) in the late 80's and Park Slope proper was completely out of our price range (young non-yuppie family). Park Slope was full of fancy strollers and upper class people who asked me where I was from "the Islands" (I'm from San Francisco).

As far as I can see, it really hasn't changed much around here at all except that the South Slope/Greenwood Heights is more like Park Slope was in the 80's. It certainly is much safer than it used to be and the drug dealers are gone from the corners.

P.S. I still can't afford to live in Park Slope proper.

Park Slope is hated for different reasons by different people:

-Gays/Feminists hate it because it's full of families.
-Ananrcists/Non-conformists hate it becuase it's full of successful people
-"Community advocates" and the "Diversity" crowd hate it because it has White people
-Regular NYers hate it becuase the average Park Slope resident is better off than them
-Hipsters and "cool" people hate it because it reminds them of middle America.

So all in all, the people who hate "middle american" society hate park slope. Park Slope rocks!!!