The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Friday, February 8, 2013

New bizzes opening all the time?

Exactly who, might I ask, is fooled by this nonsense promulgated by the ever-deceptive Corcoran?

"This lovely home is close to it all and new establishments are opening daily in hip Lefferts Gardens." 
I love the nabe for being decidedly un-hip thank you. You want hip, Brooklyn's got hip. But not on Caton.

Over here where I work in Ft. Greene, or perhaps DUMBO, or downtown Brooklyn, over on 4th Avenue or Franklin or Vanderbilt or Williamsburg or Bushwick, such hyperbole could be fairly asserted. The only thing true in this ad is that the apartment is in fact for sale and near Prospect Park. But why stop there? Tell the whole story...

It's near the colorful Caton Market, and the now-vacant historic building HSBC. And an early morning hooch shack where you can get a pint and play lotto before 9am. And the delightful Mango Seed or deliciously utilitarian Dominican joint Melany. As to "new," I believe a new bullet proof liquor store opened on Bedford in the last year. Zen Vegetarian Chinese opened in the last 5 years. And "Pancakes in Hell" bodega (check the signage) at Flatbush and Woodruff opened a couple years ago. And Abdo of ICH went from coffee to computers-only in the last couple months. Oh, yes, the Gyro place on Parkside. And the McDonald's remodeled. That must be what they're referring to.

That's the tooth, Mr. Real Estate Agent. Come visit sometime. We'd love to show you around!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I live in PLG and I want hip, so there!

Anonymous said...

Also, Caton isn't even in PLG. This is straight-up old-skool Flatbush proper.

Anonymous said...

And an early morning hooch shack where you can get a pint and play lotto before 9am.

Where oh where? Please disclose!

Clarkson FlatBed said...

Anon 10:26. The liquor store near Lenox, bro!

Anon 10:15. Exactly! But we're so un-hip, we're hip. Dig? If you don't know that equation, you ain't been living in NYC long enough.

babs said...

And how about this is NOT in Prospect Lefferts Gardens (and there is no such neighborhood at all as Lefferts Gardens, so I suppose that's how they justify the misnomer).

Bob Marvin said...

I'm as big a PLG booster as anyone and not un-prone to hyperbole, but I saw that real estate listing and it's pretty much over the top. It's true that Caton Ave. isn't in PLG. However, while I'm pretty insistent, for historical reasons, on maintaining PLG's northern boundary [north of Empire is BROOKLYN, PLG is in FLATBUSH], but our southern boundary might be another story. When PLGNA was founded in the late '60s, made up the PLG name, and defined it's borders the southern boundary was Winthrop Street and the western one was Flatbush Ave. By the time I bought my house in '74 the southern border had moved down to Clarkson, but the western border wasn't extended [by PLGNA] to Ocean until the late '70s. Who's to say that the southern border couldn't be re-defined too. I suspect that many people who live on Caton, Lenox, and Linden, as well as the Flatbush--Ocean block of Woodruff THINK they live in PLG and, just maybe, that should be so. It's not as if any other neighborhood claims them. Flatbush isn't so much a neighborhood as the second-largest [former] town in Kings County and anyway, ALL of PLG IS in Flatbush.

As to the "Lefferts Gardens" name, it's not as though this shortened version doesn't have any history. When I moved to Brooklyn in 1970 the Brownstone Revival Committee's book of NYC (and Hudson County, since it included Hoboken and Jersey City) brownstone neighborhoods showed "Lefferts Gardens." and I didn't learn the full, correct, name until I went on the 1974 house tour. I make sure to always say PROSPECT Lefferts Gardens, or just "PLG", but the shorter version isn't such a terrible error--it might even be less of a mouthful!

ElizabethC said...

yeah, sorry but Caton is Flatbush. Those rascally realtors!

Anonymous said...

I live on Lenox at Flatbush, and had a realtor tell me this area was "Prospect Park South" ... which I found completely hilarious! I prefer Flatbush as that seems to work just fine.

Anonymous said...

wow that apartment seems overpriced. 800 sq ft for over 400k? really? seems like the more realistic price is 265ish