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.
13 comments:
I sure hope so
seemed pretty busy on that lot this morning. I think they are indeed starting construction.
Shall we throw a welcome to the neighborhood party to our new resident, Mr. Gentrification?
Huh? Where you been for the last three, five, ten years?
Plus, this guy has been planning this rent regulated w/ affordable housing project for a few years now. He's hardly a newcomer. And his plan, while not low cost housing, is a welcome alternative to an empty lot.
Q I have to strongly disagree with your assessment that gentrification has arrived or arrived a long time ago. If anything Mr. Eugene's win is a sound reassurance that gentrification is a long long way from coming to PLG!! So stop worrying that rents are rising and that PLG is becoming Park Slope. Not gonna happen in ur lifetime sir.
I don't know who you are, but you have a very peculiar assessment of gentrification. Rents and housing have been outstripping inflation for years. And I have NEVER said PLG was becoming Park Slope. Commenters have.
I ask that other more informed commenters weigh in, because you seem to have an idea of gentrification that I don't understand at all.
Also, ten years of census data completely disagree with your assessment. A yearly survey complements the decade to decade analysis. You should check it out...it's quite eye-opening.
I also have never offered a definitive judgment on what is happening. There's good and bad, of course. I merely like to point things out. Perhaps, the pointing out makes you uncomfortable somehow. That's your issue, not mine.
If gentrification is so prevalent here why did we have another shooting on Fenimore I Saturday night? Is it because all of these white hipster gentrifiers are packing so much heat?
Ahhh. So gentrification and crime can't co-exist. I'm beginning to get a sense of your worldview.
Ha - rapid gentrification and crime can't co-exist! Tell that to the folks who stuck it out in the East Village, Soho, the Lower East Side, Boerum Hill, Fort Greene, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Long Island City, and on and on.
Sheesh what a maroon.
Some people apparently believe that by denying the gentrification that is taking place before their eyes, they can stop it from happening. Sad.
I am not denying gentrification I am just a realist. You really need to open your eyes Peter. I walk down Flatbush and Nostrand every day and I don't see it turning into 5th avenue or Franklin Avenue any time soon. Maybe Peter you are just overexaggersting the gentrification wave you see in this neighborhood so your piece of speculative real estate you purchased will continue to rise?
Anon 5:20. I can't help but think your knowledge of Brooklyn is not very deep. When I first moved to Brooklyn, 5th Ave was sketchy. Smith Street was downright gang infested. Franklin? Nothing there. Vanderbilt? Not a white face but me and my bandmates. Gentrification arrive LONG before the explosion of bistros.
Gentrification in the past few years has started to be associated with restaurants, shops and the like. You need to look a little deeper than that. You could even go back to some of the longer posts I've written about Flatbush Avenue (Nostrand is similar) to understand why some of the merchants and community groups on those other streets were so successful with their efforts. The first and most important aspect to commercial and traffic chaos on the Flabenue is a severe lack of leadership. Not just from elected officials, but from merchants and community groups. That's us. The new "elders." And this is very important - there is already a gentry here. The word gentrification is itself extremely loaded, and in lovely neighborhoods like Lefferts, where calling yourself a "pioneer" is a joke. People actually live here and have for decades. Are they "the Wild West?"
This has been a thriving neighborhood for Caribbeans for some time, and that is a big difference over those other areas too. A lot of shops that you probably don't patronize are actually thriving. Just because your tastes aren't currently being met doesn't mean much. Rents are high for stores around here, not just apartments and houses...that and persistent inattention to gangs and cleanliness has kept out potential merchants. That's very different than the enormous influx of capital in the houses and coops. In other words, a great deal of pent up demand around here will (when the genie is let out of the bottle) explode with growth. The three massive new apartment buildings will speed that along.
I respect your opinion, I really do. I just think there's another layer you're not addressing.
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