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Is the World Ganging Up Against Park Slope?
By
Jen Chung
Published May 18, 2008
Modified May 18, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 18, 2008
Modified May 18, 2008
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Photograph of a robot parade in Park Slope by Dave Surgan on Flickr
In writer-director Noah Baumbach*'s 1995 film, Kicking and Screaming (about college graduates, not to be confused with the Will Ferrell's children's soccer movie), the protagonist tries to tempt his girlfriend to live with him in Brooklyn: "And not just Brooklyn, A-list Brooklyn. Park Slope. Division 2 Manhattan.”
The NY Times Styles section has an article about Division 2 Manhattan--Park Slope: Where Is the Love?, which outlines the withering attacks Park Slope the neighborhood and the community has endured, especially from blogs and websites (like this one), and tries to dissect the genesis of "Slope Rage." Here are some quotes from interview subjects, including residents and professors:
- "This whole thing sounds like white people being annoyed by and jealous of other white people."
- "They’re jealous because they can’t live here."
- “There is all this class resentment in New York, and it’s very tied up in real estate. People who are well-housed are the envy of others.”
- "Hipsters and people who don’t have kids are terrified of becoming grown-ups and parents, which is what Park Slope has come to represent."
- "Brooklyn was supposed to be different. Park Slope, to some, now represents everything that Brooklyn was not supposed to be.”
But let's face it-one Park Slope blogger did create rules for the stroller set. And did the hating being in earnest when...
- People fussed over stroller parking at Barnes & Noble?
- One resident decided the neighborhood might not be worth living in after getting mugged outside his home?
- Neighbors' amazement that stars Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany are leaving Brooklyn?
- The realization a 6-year-old's chalk drawings on her stoop might be considered graffiti?
- Union Hall's sort-of-stroller ban?
- Reports of a mom Bugaboo-ing her babe through a drug deal?
- The Obsever wondered what's better--Williamsburg or Park Slope?
- Darren Starr was rumored to set his new show in Park Slope?
- Patriots' coach Bill Belichick's purchased a townhouse for his mistress?
- A.O. Scott's 2003 reviewed the film Duplex, set in a Park Slope duplex and noted "...the extra space would sure be nice, especially when they get around to having a baby (though the movie doesn't mention it, residents of Park Slope are required to do within 18 months of arrival or face deportation back to Manhattan)"?
Slamming neighborhoods and its denizens is an enduring tradition--post-college frat boys and sorority girls in Murray Hill! hipsters in the Lower East Side or Williamsburg! might-as-well- be-in- Montclair, NJ families on the Upper West Side! I-bankers in Tribeca!--and it just seems like this is Park Slope's moment under the microscope. And at the end of the day, what can be so bad about a neighborhood where there's a robot parade just for fun?
*Baumbach grew up in Park Slope and told Gothamist when he was younger, "Nobody would ever really choose to live in Brooklyn…it’s always the second choice."
Tagged
brooklyn
envy
hate
love
park slope
real estate
residents
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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