This week in Park Slope Patch I explored what matters to the people of Park Slope.
There are many assumptions about the priorities of those who live here. According to the stereotypes, we like our babies, our organic food and our progressive politics. And we really like arguing about our bike lanes. But what is really on the minds of the locals and what do they think needs fixing to make this a better place for all?
In the spirit of an unscientific survey I consulted an interesting assortment of neighborhood leaders and locals.
Eric McClure, who runs Park Slope Neighbors, a local advocacy group that supports the Prospect Park West bike lane, is concerned about the cost of housing and neighborhood diversity.
“People can’t touch a halfway decent house for under $2 million, ‘mid-priced’ apartments and good rentals are in short supply, and there really is no lower end of the market anymore. That is causing Park Slope to become increasingly less diverse, and diversity is a big part of the reason that we gentrifiers (speaking for myself) moved here in the first place,” he wrote to me.
For McClure education is also a big priority. He believes that the Brooklyn Millennium situation has been a real eye-opener.
“Of course people would love to have a great high school in the neighborhood. On the other hand, the community’s lack of engagement and effort in trying to improve the schools that already existed in the John Jay building is a major issue.”
It is McClure’s hope that the advent of Millennium Brooklyn can serve as a catalyst for making all the schools better.
Speaking of schools, Nancy McDermott, a journalist who writes the Park Slope Parents blog and lives in the neighborhood with her husband and two young sons, thinks that a big pre-k for the district “where everybody gets a spot and is ideally located” would be a win-win for local parents. She thinks this would also create space in our already over crowded elementary schools.
Daniel Meeter, the minister of Old First Dutch Reformed Church on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, writes a blog called Old First (oldfirst.blogspot.com) where he posts his weekly sermons and thought provoking pieces on civic issues. A resident of Kensington, he is member of the Park Slope Civic Council, and is currently chair of a committee to improve communication between the John Jay High School Complex and the Park Slope neighborhood.
Like McClure, for Rev. Meeter, housing affordability and availability are also important issues. He also cited the need for health care and other benefits for the “service class” (i.e. nannies, food service, etc.).
Gilley Youner, who lives in Park Slope with her husband and teenage son, believes that educational infrastructure is a primary concern. A vice president of the Park Slope Civic Council, senior associate architect at Kutnicki Bernstein Architects and a board member of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, she is passionate about land use issues and the re-zoning of Fourth Avenue, as well as land marking and the preservation of historic streets in Park Slope and elsewhere.
For Youner, affordability and diversity are key when it comes to housing because that’s the only way to maintain a “diversely ethnic, creative, wide age-range community with sky-high housing costs,” she wrote.
Andy Bachman, the senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, writes insightful essays on secular, moral and religious issues on his blog, Water Over Rocks (andybachman.com). He is concerned about the lack of affordable child-care for the neighborhood’s burgeoning population. He also believes there should be adequate low and middle income housing for those being squeezed by gentrification.
Finally, he wrote, “there needs to be a true community-wide response to helping nannies and caregivers take advantage of their residencies in the United States with educational and vocational job training programs.”
Quite a few residents voiced concern about vacant storefronts piling up on Seventh and Fifth avenues…
