I should be doing my taxes
April 12, 2010 10:46 PM   Subscribe

New York Magazine has crunched the numbers, Park Slope has taken the title of most livable neighborhood of New York.

Applying a 12 point metric Nate Silver has ranked the top 50.
Don't wanna do the heavy lifting yourself? Try the handy livability calculator.
posted by minkll (82 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
I bet there are going to be some awful Brooklyn jokes in this thread.
posted by Damn That Television at 11:03 PM on April 12, 2010


Ventriloquist dummy: The only awful Brooklyn joke around here is you!
**mouth agape, arched eyebrows**
posted by Damn That Television at 11:04 PM on April 12, 2010 [6 favorites]


By 2009, people were calling Park Slope Sector 7
posted by thelastenglishmajor at 11:04 PM on April 12, 2010 [6 favorites]


It definitely seems to be a nice area. The park is great and it's perfectly sized to be welcoming but also still feel like a neighborhood.
posted by chaz at 11:07 PM on April 12, 2010


I loved Park Slope. Yes, chock-a-block with white folks and little cheese shops and expensive coffee places, but I was awfully tired of living in places where I'd been mugged, had my apartment broken into and had more asphalt than park space. Is there anything wrong with trying to live someplace nice? Of course, I couldn't afford to live there, but I don't hold it against them.
posted by GilloD at 11:09 PM on April 12, 2010


Famously crap NYC magazine singles out famously overpriced NYC neighborhood in attempt to pull more subscriptions. Film at 11*.

*Insert snark about yuppies with strollers here.
posted by HP LaserJet P10006 at 11:10 PM on April 12, 2010 [10 favorites]


I bet there are going to be some awful Brooklyn jokes in this thread.

I'm sure you've heard them all before and liked them before they were being told in Webster Hall.
posted by secret about box at 11:11 PM on April 12, 2010 [3 favorites]


We're called 'Slopeheads.'
posted by grobstein at 11:18 PM on April 12, 2010


You know what, though? It really, really is.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:35 PM on April 12, 2010


I got all huffy and "Oh, sure, New York Magazine," and then I clicked inside and saw Nate Silver was involved and now I buy it. He could talk me into anything.
posted by sallybrown at 11:39 PM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]


So, so sick of the inclusionist, hickish attitude of NYC residents. It's like people obsessing over a small town. Nobody cares who lives anywhere else.
posted by base_16 at 12:11 AM on April 13, 2010


...the inclusionist, hickish attitude of NYC residents. It's like people obsessing over a small town.

We like to think we're obsessing over a large town. This attitude that you want to eliminate, are you offering a substitute? It's most of what we get in exchange for all the effort of staying here.
posted by StickyCarpet at 1:05 AM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


So, so sick of the inclusionist, hickish attitude of NYC residents. It's like people obsessing over a small town. Nobody cares who lives anywhere else.

I think that a big part of this is simply that New Yorkers like to talk about real estate, it's a New York hobby and neighborhoods tend to have distinct identities. It's something we all have in common, and residents are always looking for their next, cheaper apartment for when they are priced out of their current one.

It's like the way that people in LA discuss traffic and parking with what seems to non-Angelenos with near cult-like intensity.

(Grew up in LA, lived in New York for 8 years)
posted by so much modern time at 2:37 AM on April 13, 2010 [6 favorites]


On a recent trip to New York, someone gave me shit for suggesting they move to Park Slope, saying, "Oh yeah, I'm probably not spending enough time around yuppie moms pushing strollers." I am now glad to hear that a) I was right and b) the joke he used was a complete cliche.

I feel vindicated.
posted by malapropist at 2:55 AM on April 13, 2010


It's like people obsessing over a small town. Nobody cares who lives anywhere else.

Metro NYC has a population only slightly smaller than Australia, and has a larger economy.

I think it's a little different than a small town.
posted by Alex404 at 3:01 AM on April 13, 2010 [9 favorites]


I lived in nearby Ft. Greene between 1984 and 1995, one neighborhood over from Park Slope. Man, Ft. Greene was way, way cheaper. Damn, I had a three-bedroom brownstone apartment (2nd floor, high ceilings) on Fulton street, (between So. Portland and So. Oxford) that went for 850 dollars a month. Then I got the landlord to knock 50 dollars off, one year when it seemed the market was a little down. So, the last few years I lived there, it was 8 bills a month. And I used to rehearse a 4-piece band there. In the living room! Bass, drums, guitar, percussion. You could hear us up and down the block!

Now, why was Ft. Greene, a neighborhood closer to Manhattan, with better train access (I was 3 blocks from Atlantic Ave station and on the same block as the C local) so cheap? And why could I rehearse an electric band there with no complaints? The answer to both questions is simple! Black people! Ft. Greene was full of black people!

I've got a feeling there's a lot less black people in Ft. Greene now, though. And I guess my old place has gotta go for, what, 2000 a month? More?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:10 AM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


And I guess my old place has gotta go for, what, 2000 a month?

HA HA HA HA HA...

No.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:26 AM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


Ballpark figure there, Civil_Disobedient? I know, I know, it's hard to imagine such a thing, but I am actually not (gasp!) intimately familiar with NY rents. I would be interested to know, though.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:11 AM on April 13, 2010


I was surprised to see that Williamsburg was beaten out by DUMBO. Does that mean that I'm toffee-nosed, or that I'm going to get jumped?
posted by GameDesignerBen at 4:25 AM on April 13, 2010


So, so sick of the inclusionist, hickish attitude of NYC residents. It's like people obsessing over a small town.

Well I think that part of the reason is that a lot of these people are originally from small towns. Most the born NYers I've known / met tend to be a lot more relaxed about the whole thing unless they're media/blogger types whose job it is to get worked up/work people up about stuff.
posted by i_cola at 4:26 AM on April 13, 2010


I lived in Park Slope for about sixteen months in the early nineties, and it was probably about the best place that I could have afforded to live on the salary that I had. It didn't have this infestation of yuppie larvae that everyone seems to obsess about and was very walkable; I could even afford to eat out regularly. I only wish that I'd stayed there a little longer.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:50 AM on April 13, 2010


So, so sick of the inclusionist, hickish attitude of NYC residents. It's like people obsessing over a small town.

As an official MeFi representative of the county of Kings and the city of New York, your complaint has been duly noted. We will now begin obsessing over (drum roll) Wabash, Indiana. We hope this is more to your favor.
posted by griphus at 5:21 AM on April 13, 2010 [6 favorites]


Also: Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Sunset Park all beating Bensonhurst? As a nearly life-long resident of the latter, I call shenanigans!
posted by griphus at 5:29 AM on April 13, 2010


What is it you guys don't like about yuppies, anyway? You know what yuppies like? Coffeeshops. Bookstores and record stores. Museums. Walkability. Good restaurants and bars. Usable public transport. Trees. I feel like these are the same things 90% of MeFiles say they want in their neighborhoods whenever one of these "where should I live?" questions comes up, and they're the same things Silver uses in his livability index in the largely-read-by-yuppies magazine he's writing for. So if the neighborhoods you like are the ones that have the kinds of things yuppie parents and their kids like, why does it bother you to find them there?
posted by escabeche at 5:33 AM on April 13, 2010 [15 favorites]


All I know is that I had really excellent Haitian food in Park Slope/Prospect Heights a few weeks ago. We were actually the only white folks in the place. It's probably 100% yuppiefied by now, so sorry for ruining your neighborhood restaurant with my whiteness.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:39 AM on April 13, 2010


Actually, I guess this is badly phrased -- obviously, yuppies have money, and I can see why it's annoying to like the same neighborhoods people with money like, because it makes those neighborhoods more expensive for everybody else. It just seems weird to think of "there are yuppies around here" as an intrinsic negative of a neighborhood. But looking back at the thread, maybe nobody really did that. I think I'd better have my coffee now.
posted by escabeche at 5:43 AM on April 13, 2010


To out-snark you all: Fucked In Park Slope.
posted by joshwa at 5:46 AM on April 13, 2010


To out-snark you all: Fucked In Park Slope.

...except for that post where the mask drops and they squee unironically over gourmet cupcakes.
posted by availablelight at 5:56 AM on April 13, 2010


Shorter version of escabeche's comment: MeFi is full of yuppies but most MeFites don't want to admit it.
posted by madcaptenor at 6:10 AM on April 13, 2010 [2 favorites]


Post is made about New York. Person not from said place takes offense. Person from said place recursively bashes a city in the American Middle West (which in turn is way more boring and predictable than the original offense or non-offense). Repeat as necessary.

For what it's worth, I'd rather read a piece about Wabash, Indiana than one about New York City real estate, but I'd also rather read piece about Wabash, Indiana than one about programming languages, or about film, or about any number of other recurrent topics here.

Probably the thing to do is to just move on. One isn't going to knock them from the center of their little universe; as was mentioned upthread, it's that self-designation that gets them through the day.
posted by wreckingball at 6:15 AM on April 13, 2010


What is it you guys don't like about yuppies, anyway?

The smugness.

(I'm just mad at this list because I'm a square who actually likes the UWS)
posted by oinopaponton at 6:17 AM on April 13, 2010


Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Sunset Park all beating Bensonhurst?

I gentrified in Sunset Park for 6 years, so you can thank me.
posted by swift at 6:24 AM on April 13, 2010


What is it you guys don't like about yuppies, anyway? You know what yuppies like? Coffeeshops. Bookstores and record stores. Museums. Walkability. Good restaurants and bars. Usable public transport. Trees. I feel like these are the same things 90% of MeFiles say they want in their neighborhoods whenever one of these "where should I live?" questions comes up, and they're the same things

You want to be Yoko?

I'm too mousy to live in NYC. I'm afraid I'll like it and never make enough money to stay.
posted by anniecat at 6:42 AM on April 13, 2010


Oh, by the way, this is so funny:

New York Hipsters Too Cool for the Census (NPR)

ROBERT SMITH: The biggest census procrastinators in New York City happen to live in the most self-consciously hip neighborhood: Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Williamsburg is a magnet for kids just out of college, home of indie bands and ironic mustaches, wacky bikes and skinny jeans, and honest to goodness record stores like this one, Academy Annex.

(Soundbite of music)

SMITH: Two 20-somethings, Nate and Mike, are working behind the counter. They share an apartment and should be sharing a census form, but...

MIKE: Did we get the forms?

Mr. NATE STARK: Yeah.

MIKE: We did. I didnt see any yet.

Mr. STARK: We still get mail from the past 30 people that have lived there. So it's like who knows if people are getting these.

SMITH: Well, actually the census knows. These few blocks around Wythe Avenue and 6th Street have about a 36 percent return rate.

Nate Stark has an explanation.

Mr. STARK: I guess it's laziness and like, what's the point? When it comes down to it, nobody wants to fill out like another form that's just like getting sent to your house that really relatively has nothing to do with your life.

SMITH: He thinks the young people just haven't been given a good enough reason to fill out the census.

Mr. STARK: I mean people would do if they got like five bucks.

SMITH: Five bucks?


I love when Robert Smith incredulously says, "Five bucks?"
posted by anniecat at 6:45 AM on April 13, 2010 [3 favorites]


South Philly is turning into little Brooklyn. I AM SICK OF YOU BROOKLYNESE FUCKS RAISING YOUR LITTLE BRATS WHO JUST WANT TO PLAY WITH MY LITTLE BRATS WHILE WE SIT ON THE STOOP AND TALK ABOUT COMPOSTING!

Wait, I'm not sick of that at all. Sorry!
posted by Mister_A at 6:53 AM on April 13, 2010 [3 favorites]


You want to be Yoko?

Um... er... what?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:55 AM on April 13, 2010


Also, I have a friend who used to refer to South Philly as "South south Brooklyn" way way back, because there were cultural similarities between "old school" Brooklyn and South Philly.
posted by Mister_A at 6:55 AM on April 13, 2010


I enjoy visiting New York.
posted by MarshallPoe at 7:00 AM on April 13, 2010


I'm glad the Upper West Side ranked so low on the list. More room for me.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:06 AM on April 13, 2010


Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Sunset Park all beating Bensonhurst?

Usually it's Bensonhurst doing all the beating...on black folks. (rimshot)
posted by cazoo at 7:07 AM on April 13, 2010


I like Park Slope. I have two friends that live there and they do make fun of the "dogs and babies" culture there sometimes, but they also love it. Park Slope is one of the few places in New York that I've been that has made me feel like "Yeah, I could live here."

Plus, it has Bergen Street Comics. Yes, perhaps I have misguided qualifiers for what makes a place great to live, but to me, a good neighborhood comic book store always gives a place an advantage in my mind.
posted by darksong at 7:10 AM on April 13, 2010


Yay Greenpoint #5!
posted by greta simone at 7:11 AM on April 13, 2010


Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Sunset Park all beating Bensonhurst?

What was that? I couldn't hear you over this delicious dollar taco.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 7:17 AM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


Washington Heights didn't make it in the top 20? This list is bunk.

Oh, I see. Things I care about were weighed less than transit/proximity (even though the A gets me downtown in under 30 minutes): Green Space, Diversity, Schools, Restaurants, Safety/Crime, Creative Capital, Housing Quality, Health & Environment + Affordable Housing would get Washington Heights and many other places much higher rankings.

However, it seems this list is designed to favor places with lots of shopping close to downtown. New York's corporate sponsors should be proud.
posted by whimsicalnymph at 7:17 AM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


I spent the better part of the last two weeks in Brooklyn, visiting friends and trying to decide if I'd like to move there. My views on Brooklyn neighborhoods, admittedly a total outsider's, don't really gel with the article too well, though. I think my favorite, by far, was the Clinton Hill / Ft. Greene area. Great mix of people, plenty of places to eat... I dug it.

I did enjoy Park Slope for its bike shops, coffee shops and the aforementioned Bergen St. Comics. However, I witnessed the rudest, awfulest, snotty, entitled behavior from its residents at almost every turn, the likes of which I've experienced nowhere else in Brooklyn (more akin to the upper west side, actually). I think that Park Slope would probably be my favorite if it weren't for the people who live in Park Slope.
posted by brand-gnu at 7:27 AM on April 13, 2010


This "livability calculator" is a thinly veiled tool for white people to figure out where other white people like to live around New York.
posted by RajahKing at 7:29 AM on April 13, 2010 [3 favorites]


I love NYC grar comments because

I personally would have a thousand AskChatFilter questions than one more fucking "Hey I will be in NYC; where do I eat and what do I do?"
posted to MetaTalk by Optimus Chyme at 10:38 AM on August 8, 2005

posted by Optimus Chyme at 7:30 AM on April 13, 2010


I'm glad the Upper West Side ranked so low on the list. More room for me.

It's weird that it was so low. I've always thought of Park Slope as the UWS of Brooklyn.
posted by Mavri at 7:39 AM on April 13, 2010


(Between 1984 and 1995) Now, why was Ft. Greene, a neighborhood closer to Manhattan, with better train access (I was 3 blocks from Atlantic Ave station and on the same block as the C local) so cheap?

The occasional pistol whipping armed robbery was a factor during those years.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:44 AM on April 13, 2010


I spent a summer in Sunnyside a while back and started proclaiming that it's where I would live if for some reason I found myself moving to New York. My Brooklyn friends all looked at me as if I was nuts. I feel so vindicated! It comes in above Boerum Hill!
posted by craichead at 7:58 AM on April 13, 2010


I live in Crown Heights, a neighborhood that doesn't even rate on this list.

I guess that means that I do not exist.

*vanishes in an asphalt-scented puff of smoke*
posted by Dr. Wu at 7:58 AM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


The calculator thingy is pretty neat if you ask me. Nate Silver's the man.
posted by Perplexity at 8:12 AM on April 13, 2010


So, playing around with the sliders, I found that if you select "Housing Quality" only, the top 3 are Tribeca; West Village / Meatpacking; Central Greenwich Village. As a non-New Yorker, that makes no sense to me. Is that at all plausible?
posted by Perplexity at 8:15 AM on April 13, 2010


You want to be Yoko?

Um... er... what?


I'm going to stop making jokes because 9 out of 10 times they fall flat.
posted by anniecat at 8:16 AM on April 13, 2010


This morning, Nate posted some reasonably extensive details on how the ratings were calculated.
posted by Perplexity at 8:19 AM on April 13, 2010


As someone who doesn't live anywhere near NYC, and has only seen what's available in UWS via a quick Craigslist search... what's the deal? Why are UWS apartments so nice, and seem to offer so much bang for the buck? Are the neighborhoods really bad or something?
posted by bjork24 at 8:20 AM on April 13, 2010


Are the neighborhoods really bad or something?

They were thirty years ago, when a lot of people moved into the neighborhood. A ton of the buildings here are rent stabilized or rent controlled, so prices aren't nearly as bad as the prices for new construction on the UWS.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:24 AM on April 13, 2010


But - top 50 out of how many?
posted by TravelBug at 8:25 AM on April 13, 2010


So, playing around with the sliders, I found that if you select "Housing Quality" only, the top 3 are Tribeca; West Village / Meatpacking; Central Greenwich Village. As a non-New Yorker, that makes no sense to me. Is that at all plausible?

I agree, it seems weird-- I'm guessing that it's because there's a fair amount of artsy, newish construction in these areas, especially the Meatpacking District and Chelsea (converted industrial buildings! new condos!). Older buildings downtown tend to be really, really cramped. I'm surprised that UWS/Morningside/Harlem/Washington Heights don't score higher in that category, because that's where the relatively affordable, enormous pre-war buildings are.
posted by oinopaponton at 8:30 AM on April 13, 2010


Chelsea Tribeca
posted by oinopaponton at 8:32 AM on April 13, 2010


Washington Heights didn't make it in the top 20? This list is bunk.

Oh, I see. Things I care about were weighed less than transit/proximity (even though the A gets me downtown in under 30 minutes): Green Space, Diversity, Schools, Restaurants, Safety/Crime, Creative Capital, Housing Quality, Health & Environment + Affordable Housing would get Washington Heights and many other places much higher rankings.

However, it seems this list is designed to favor places with lots of shopping close to downtown. New York's corporate sponsors should be proud.


Uh, no. As a former Wa. Heights resident, I can attest that its designation is deserved. There is absolutely nothing to do in Wa Hieghts, the apartments are infested with bed bugs, the express lines shut down at 9 p.m. leaving you essentially land-locked until morning, the food is shoddy (with the exception of a couple amazing Dominican buffets) and it has, historically, the highest occurrences of drug busts in the city (I never did take up all those offers to buy crack from the dude who sold it right under my bedroom window every night until 3 a.m., or the dude who sold it from the ice cream truck in the middle of winter). Also, 70% of the 'green space' you mention is technically Inwood, and if you live west of Broadway 'safety' is a joke. Walk up Amsterdam btwn 150th - 165th on a Sat night and you'll see what I mean. Two people were murdered on that stretch of block the month I moved there. A fucking BABY was stabbed in its carriage 4 years ago on the corner of 172 and Broadway.

Inwood, on the other hand, is great. Affordable, safe, diverse and gorgeous enough to make up for the lack of transportation.

Totally stoked Greenpoint got #5. Best neighborhood in the city. Moving to BK from upper Manhattan was one of the best decisions I ever made.
posted by tiger yang at 8:32 AM on April 13, 2010


I hate yuppies because I grew up in the suburbs. Oh yes, they're very safe and liveable.

You know what yuppies like? Coffeeshops.

Starbucks.

Bookstores

Barnes and Noble.

and record stores.

Virgin Megastore.

Good restaurants and bars.

Generic asian fusion. Slick clubs with expensive cocktails and no soul.
posted by naju at 8:45 AM on April 13, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm too mousy to live in NYC. I'm afraid I'll like it and never make enough money to stay.

If it makes you feel any better, I am also somewhat mousy and lived here for 5 years before making even nearly enough to get my own apartment in any outer borough. (planning on doing that next year, wee!)

And to those who complain about people in NYC bragging about the city they live in, it's really only because people are actually amazed about all the city has to offer. It's not to make other people feel bad about where they live. i_cola made a great point about that up above. As someone who grew up in a nice but boring suburb, this city is amazing to me, even five years later. Just when I think I'm getting tired of it, I spend a few days somewhere else and get annoyed at the lack of stuff that is available to me there, and the fact that I have to get in a car and drive in order to do anything, and that I can't find decent feta cheese anywhere.
posted by wondermouse at 9:00 AM on April 13, 2010 [2 favorites]


I get to stay with a friend there now & then. Her place overlooks the Prospect Expressway (nice!) and I like the area around that end. It has a bit of the old school feel with some enjoyable newer places (e.g. Roots Cafe & one of my favourite US bars to watch UK / EU soccer – Toby's Public House on 6th & 21st). Good Mexican food at Tacos Nuevo Mexico. And I was told (at a meetup no less) that there was no such thing in NY.

On the downside, home to the most depressing Post Office in the world.
posted by i_cola at 9:19 AM on April 13, 2010


Ballpark figure there, Civil_Disobedient?

Actually it's not nearly as unrealistic as my initial scoffing would have suggested. Although, as practice space, you'd probably have to triple that figure, just to cover all the neighbors you'd have to pay off for not complaining.

I hate yuppies...

Interesting. I hate poor people for similar reasons.

You know what yuppies like? Coffeeshops.
Dunkin' Donuts.

Bookstores
Wal-Mart.

and record stores.
Wal-Mart.

Good restaurants and bars.
Wal-Mart.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:29 AM on April 13, 2010


Playing with the calculator, when took schools to zero, East Village came out tops.
posted by i_cola at 9:36 AM on April 13, 2010


Starbucks....Barnes and Noble....Virgin Megastore....Generic asian fusion. Slick clubs with expensive cocktails and no soul.

Hahahahahhaa. There are some things wrong with south Brooklyn, but...not this. The Barnes and Noble in Cobble Hill is actually being driven out of business by the tiny independent down the street, and I doubt anyone in the Slope has set foot in a "slick club" in ten years. Or in a Virgin Megastore, if indeed they even exist anymore which I don't think they do. And while there is one Starbucks in the Slope, people mostly ignore it unless they're protesting it by chucking bags of Gorilla coffee through the windows. Also, the Slope has some of the best little bizarre restaurants in all of New York. At least know what you're making fun of.
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 9:40 AM on April 13, 2010


Flapjax: Ballpark figure there, Civil_Disobedient? I know, I know, it's hard to imagine such a thing, but I am actually not (gasp!) intimately familiar with NY rents. I would be interested to know, though.

Here's a secret. Rents and property values have been going down in NYC for close to two years and dumb rags like New York and the NY Times pretend it's still a sellers market.
posted by Skygazer at 9:40 AM on April 13, 2010


I hate poor people for similar reasons.

I'm not following your train of thought. Poor people have very limited choices, seems like a separate issue to me. But yes, on the whole I'd also rather not live in the kind of town where the only record store is a Wal-Mart.
posted by naju at 9:41 AM on April 13, 2010


tiger yang: I live in the Heights right now, but East of Broadway and in the 180s. Our apartment is beautiful. According to this article my neighborhood is still Washington Heights...but I guess you would call it Inwood? Some people around here have tried to rebrand it "Hudson Heights," but that name has little traction outside of the neighborhood. Your characterization of Inwood seems to fit where we are:

Affordable, safe, diverse and gorgeous enough to make up for the lack of transportation.


We've got musicians of all stripes—opera singers, Broadway actresses and actors, violinists (you can hear them all practicing)—plus a cornucopia of New York: Dominicans, old Russians, Orthodox and Reform Jewish families, White just-starting-out families, gay couples, and students. We've also got a lot of great restaurants: Dominican, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Japanese, Thai, and even a couple diners. Sure, there's not a lot of party-hardy nightlife (unless you go to the Monkey Room!), but that doesn't really bother me. We've got Fort Tryon, the Cloisters, and further on, Inwood Park.

And the transportation isn't THAT bad. We're close to the A and the 1, plus the M4. And if the A isn't running express (usually after 11, not 9!), we can always catch the D from downtown to 145th and then switch to the A.

I guess I kind of love this area. None of my friends in BK have an apartment that can rival mine for the space and price and precious quiet. Although maybe yours can. It sounds like you found a good spot. ;)
posted by whimsicalnymph at 10:06 AM on April 13, 2010


You live in Inwood. Yes, it is a beautiful neighborhood. And yes, the space you get is unmatched. I took my girlfriend up to Ft. Tyron several weeks ago. She loved it and asked why I'd never taken her there before.

Also, I am still mourning the loss of Jessie's bar. Stay away from the Monkey Room at all costs.
posted by tiger yang at 10:11 AM on April 13, 2010


Plus, it has Bergen Street Comics. Yes, perhaps I have misguided qualifiers for what makes a place great to live, but to me, a good neighborhood comic book store always gives a place an advantage in my mind.


Holy shit! That's walking distance and it looks like they have whatever you call it when you buy comic series as books. Volumes?
posted by edbles at 10:12 AM on April 13, 2010


I love how Nate has a disclaimer in his followup piece on 538 where he explicitly says, "I don't even like Park Slope, particularly."
posted by ericbop at 10:24 AM on April 13, 2010


edbles: They have regular floppy comics, too, and not just collections and graphic novels.

Go there! Give them money! Since they are more than 200 miles away from me, I obviously can't shop there too often so I like to encourage everyone who can to do so. It's a really great store and Tom and Amy are two wonderful, friendly people.
posted by darksong at 10:27 AM on April 13, 2010


tiger yang: Jessie's Bar has closed! That's where the new Thai restaurant is...
posted by whimsicalnymph at 10:30 AM on April 13, 2010


I live in Park Slope from 2004-2006 and it's a really great area of NY; not too far from Manhattan via the F/N/R trains, good bagels (La Bagel Delight!), "affordable rent", and yet still has enough minorities that there is really good tienda/taquerias/middle eastern run bodegas that I could live off of tacos, pita, and hummus.

That being said, there's something disheartening about being mowed over by a fleet of lesbian moms double-wide strollers.
posted by wcfields at 10:35 AM on April 13, 2010


park slope more like snark dopes
posted by Juicy Avenger at 12:35 PM on April 13, 2010


I live in Park Slope. All I have to say is that if you also live there, please go to El Pollo on Fifth. It makes such great Peruvian chicken and it is always empty. I keep waiting for it to break my heart and close but it hasn't yet.
posted by Falconetti at 2:37 PM on April 13, 2010


Poor people have very limited choices, seems like a separate issue to me.

Perhaps one of the reasons they are poor is because of their insistence on purchasing from places that reduce overall employment for their regions and destroy local businesses that might have been able to offer the kind of blue-collar job that could, say, keep someone from being poor.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:40 PM on April 13, 2010


Perhaps one of the reasons they are poor is because of their insistence on purchasing from places that reduce overall employment for their regions and destroy local businesses that might have been able to offer the kind of blue-collar job that could, say, keep someone from being poor.

Not to further the derail, but this is absurd. Wal-Mart doesn’t bear the sole responsibility for domestic indigence, and telling poor people they shouldn’t shop at a retailer amenable with their budget is almost as disillusioned as it is condescending.

The construction, electrical work and basic plumbing just to get one box-retailer off the ground gives jobs to hundreds of local area contractors and subcontractors for months at a time. There are literally tens of thousands of construction firms across the country that subsist solely on these developments. I know this doesn’t jibe with a cubicle, Springsteen understanding of the blue-collar narrative, but there’s a reason why city councils everywhere agree to allow their counties to be rezoned to accommodate these structures in the first place.

There are a multitude of reasons why people are losing their jobs in this country, and Wal-Mart isn’t anywhere near the top. Wal-Mart doesn’t usurp high-paying (or even moderate-paying) blue-collar jobs. Our proclivity to outsource literally ever profession in the cannon (manufacturing or informational), the death of domestic industry, rising fuel costs, and the housing market are a few places you might begin pointing the finger as to why there are so many new poor in this country, alongside alcoholism, racism, inadequate access to education, economic disparity (as well as regional disparities among coastal and non) and generational indigence.

Do you think Apple contributes to our domestic workforce for their manufacturing needs? How about Nike or Levi's? Where's all your canned rage for the products you support? It’s royally disrespectful and profoundly ignorant to tell someone who’s hit bottom that they shouldn’t shop at the one place they can still afford.
posted by tiger yang at 6:08 PM on April 13, 2010


Interesting. Park Slope was just becoming hip when I was out in NYC in the 80s -- heck, Greenpoint was sort of a beachhead on Long Island with almost the whole of the two boroughs ceded to native New Yorkers. I find that the two neighborhoods where I lived -- UWS and Morningside Heights -- have descriptions that still roughly match, and are ranked pretty low, so I know I'd have a much grander time if I had better hood-fu next time I move there (which is possible, though I still want to get back to Chicago).
posted by dhartung at 11:54 PM on April 13, 2010


Back in the day, UWS did not include anyplace more 'upper' than about 80th street, beyond which was getting too close to Harlem for most white folks. Even so, the west 70's were really cool and awesome. People would refuse invitations to my home, on Riverside Drive at 110th, because it was "in Harlem". I miss 1974 very very much.
posted by Goofyy at 3:20 AM on April 17, 2010 [1 favorite]


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