Life on the Crown/Prospect Heights Border
In the most recent NY Press, Joshua Bernstein describes how his once out-of-favor neighborhood all of a sudden began attracting poorly written flyers soliciting building owners to sell, sell, sell. In the process, he provides some less than flattering (though purposefully theatrical) color on the hood: My rent is cheap because I live on Brooklyn’s…
In the most recent NY Press, Joshua Bernstein describes how his once out-of-favor neighborhood all of a sudden began attracting poorly written flyers soliciting building owners to sell, sell, sell. In the process, he provides some less than flattering (though purposefully theatrical) color on the hood:
My rent is cheap because I live on Brooklyn’s Crown and Prospect Heights border. Around here, my bodega sells toilet paper through a Plexiglas hole. A nightly gunshot symphony lulls me to sleep. And around the corner, drug dealers more bloodthirsty than mosquitoes ply substances green and white. A few months back, one unfortunate salesman received an additional hole in his head. Quality-of-life issues, yes, but for three bedrooms in a tidy brownstone with minor troubles (ceiling aside, there’s a sticky bathroom door and a finicky radiator), my roommates and I pay just $1,650.
Going Postal [NY Press]
My sister visited Park Place two years ago precisely to see 867 Park Pl since that was our grandparents’ home and our grandfather’s office when the street was known as “doctor’s row” in the 50’s. She said the area was claiming back much of the old integrity. Many of the brownstones were being returned to single family dwelling and younger people were settling in and restoring the area…so what is the true picture from those of you who reside there?
1990 is a lot different from 2005 — like 15 years ago. I agree, in 1990 you wouldn’t have wanted to go there — that was when Prospect Heights was still known as “Park Slope vicinity,” but today it’s a different story.
I grew up in brooklyn, and that is how that area was for many, many years. It has gotten much, much safer as has much of NYC, but I can believe that that could happen. I served on a grand jury for 4 weeks (standard length) in 1990 and most of the cases were for illegal guns, drugs and murder from that area, so I do believe in what he says. Even bed-stuy and other surrounding areas were like that. You would not want to walk in those neighborhoods, very unsafe.
This guy is a copy editor? Tough to believe, given his poor writing skills. Oh well, that’s the New York Press for you.
Yes, factually it’s an exaggeration, but it’s well written, we gotta give him that.
Well written and fun to read.
Pretty sure he was playing it up for dramatic effect.
I assume this is a deliberate exaggeration; I’ve often been on that block (as well as all around the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital complex, as I have several friends who live there), and things never seemed that bad, nor have my friends complained…
I believe he lives on park place between classon and franklin.