PS Barbies

Some of them are funny....most of them make no sense. I'm not really sure why they would have someone from the lower east side driving a pickup truck; or a girl from bensonhurst living in a conversion loft.

It seems someone took an email about some other locality and tried to put NYC hoods in it...without actually knowing anything about NYC.

That stereotype is about ten years out of date.

I've lived here for a while and while there are a few nutty granola crunchers amongst us, most of the people I know here dress well, believe in ahem.. getting rid of body hair, and lead average lives, which consist of white collar jobs, not as protesters or activists. I would classify it as a mellower version of the UES. That being said, it's got a bit of a small town feel which isn't for everyone.

Subject: "nutty granola crunchers??"

um "nutty" granola crunchers, protesters and activists does not exactly equal oustanding body hair. but nonetheless geez when did park slope start to be equated with upper east side? i don't think so. ?! and is leading "average lives" ,um, a good thing?

btw those "nutty granola crunchers" are the ones who paved the way with your organic foods, environmental awareness and the like!! thank them, don't make fun of, mock, or disparage them.

Subject: Re: "nutty granola crunchers??"

excuse me sprite but talk about distortion of a post. who held anyone up as "saints"? I said calling them "nutty granola crunchers," which the other poster did and who obviously didn't hold them in such high regard, was not really fair since these people paved the way on many of the things we take for granted in park slope and in our culture (the park slope food coop, a pretty high level of environmental consciousness, a once bohemian artistic sensibility, political consciousness, etc. etc.).

however i happen to think there is no excuse for "average" at this point in time when courageous people are needed who are willing to lead lives outside of the 'status quo.' and please. saying we need more of the mainstream so we get more of the 'other?' is a sorry excuse to remain the same as everyone else. at this point, we NEED people who are willing to take chances and go FAR outside the mainstream and the more the better.

also ... saying the original park slope pioneers' reasons weren't "altruistic"? who said the reasons HAD to be altruistic? I'm curious, where do you get that from my post? Secondly, if the end result was a culture that was not bland and homogenized - which I see as a sorry factor in our society today - that seems pretty good to me.

and please don't start retorting with 'go back to the '70's & 80's with your drugs and crime' and all that, which is where people tend to go next. That is NOT what I am saying. I was initially countering the poster who stated that park slope is like the upper east side and there are only a few 'nutty granola crunchers.' then you piped in.

sprite wrote: [quote=cat2]um "nutty" granola crunchers, protesters and activists does not exactly equal oustanding body hair. but nonetheless geez when did park slope start to be equated with upper east side? i don't think so. ?! and is leading "average lives" ,um, a good thing?

btw those "nutty granola crunchers" are the ones who paved the way with your organic foods, environmental awareness and the like!! thank them, don't make fun of, mock, or disparage them.

There is no shame in leading an "average" life, cat2. Most people do. We admire the artists, activists, etc. that you mention because they bucked the mainstream; they wouldn't be special if there were no mainstream for them to buck. And admirable as they were and are, their reasons for coming to PS were not all altruistic. I see no reason to mock them, but let's not hold them up as saints, either.

cat2:

excuse me sprite but talk about distortion of a post. who held anyone up as "saints"?

True, the word "saints" was not a quote from your post. Nor did I think it would be taken as such, since I didn't put it in quotes. I chose that word to describe "the ones who paved the way" because you said we should thank them.

"The ones who paved the way" came to this neighborhood because the rent was cheaper and then changed it to fit their idea of what a neighborhood should be. I don't have any quarrel with that. I think it's great, frankly. I admire it, and I said so. But it is not entirely altruistic, as I pointed out - which is why I don't think I owe them my gratitude. They didn't do it for me - they did it for themselves, because they wanted the community they lived in to be better.

I'm not mocking them for that. But I don't think there's any reason to belittle a new group of people who came into this neighborhood because property was cheaper (per square foot, at least) and are now living the "average" life that works for them. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but it seems that you want everybody to "think different" (not quoting you, obviously), while forgetting that what holds a neighborhood together is in fact the way the people in it share common experiences, attitudes, or lifestyles. This must have been the case for the trail-blazers as well. It takes common ground and shared values to create a cooperative, no?

Please understand that I'm not running anyone down here. Live and let live, I say. I just think that view should be extended to the newcomers, too.