The New York Times in their current special report, "Class Matters in America," says social class has become harder to see in the things Americans buy. Higher incomes, lower prices and easy credit give people access to so many high-end goods that "traditional markers of status have lost much of their meaning."
The series got me thinking about class in Park Slope. What are the markers of class here? Needless to say, this is a class society with a high, middle and lower class living side by side. As Sloper, one of the readers of OTBKB, writes: Park Slope is really the sum total of all of us: the old slopers, the new slopers, the renters, the owners, the hipsters, the yuppies, the parents and children, the childless by choice, the singles, the married, the straight, the gay. As Slopers, we are at once extremely diverse in ways that are extraordinarily appealing, yet often so uniformly homogeneous in our quasi-bohemiam-bourgeoise aspirations that it is sometimes utterly nauseating.
And then he added: "I really do mean that in a totally non-judgemental sort of way."
Suffice it to say, class is a complicated issue in Park Slope. This is a neighborhood that prides itself on democratic values, inclusionary politics, and one of the oldest and largest member-run Food Coops in the United State. Viva La Revolution!
That said, the Slope isn’t exactly an egalitarian socialist society. It’s pretty damn privileged and pretty damn stratified in some clear and not so clear ways.
So, how does class work here?
Certainly, real estate must be one measurement of class. But then, it all depends when you bought your house or coop. There was a time, a long, long time ago, when buying a house in Park Slope was a solidly middle class thing to do. Now only the rich need apply. But the early buyers and the recent buyers are living side by side in the same kind of houses. It can be a sign of status but it all depends on when you got in.
So having a house doesn’t necessarily define you in that way.
How about cars? The Volvo is probably the quintessential Park Slope car. But the Slope also has its share of Humvees, Hummers, and Hybrids. And there are people like my husband and me who picked up a used 1987 Volvo for $4000, more than eight years ago. By the same token, many a wealthy person has a reasonably priced Mini Cooper because its small size makes for easy parking. And they’re so damn cute.
And have you noticed the fancy cigarette boats docked in the Gowanus Canal? They are visible from Carroll Street. Who says you’ve gotta be "The Donald" to have a luxurious yacht?
How about private school? Do the rich go to private school and the middle class and poor…
This may be true to a large extent. But in Park Slope and Prospect Heights, there are people who say they are "forced" to send their kids to private schools they can barely afford because they don’t have the right address to get into PS 321. Some of them get their parents to pay, others get financial aid. Who doesn’t know people who are "school-poor:" those who shovel over a big percentage of their income to pay for private school?
Which isn’t to say that there aren’t loads of loaded people who can comfortably dish out three tuitions at
$20,000 a pop. But private school as a status marker does and doesn’t wash.
To complicate things, attending PS 321 is a status symbol of sorts. It is, in many ways, like a private school. And while the administration is passionately anti-elitest and inclusionary, the school is inherently privileged because of the wealth and influence that exists in this neighborhood. A highly-accomplished PTA is able to raise money for value- added enhancements that are practically unheard of in many public schools.
How about services like child care? Here again, things get confusing. If a caregiver picks up the kids at school it probably means that both parents are working. However, that couple has lower status, says the Times’, then a family where a parent is able to pick up the kids at school because that family can afford to have one parent stay home.
But many families in Park Slope make the choice to keep one parent at home even if it is ill-advised financially (and might set them back in the big-picture scheme of things). Deep feelings about attachment parenting or the simple desire to be with one’s kids lead many a family to make these choices; and they are most definitely NOT a sign of status.
According to the Times’ it’s the parents that can walk to school with the caregiver that have the most status of all. Tricky.
What about shopping? The Times’ writes: "A family squarely in the middle class may own a flat-screen television, drive a BMW and indulge a taste for expensive chocolate." True. There are plenty of Park Slopers with high-end tastes who don’t have high-end incomes. I know people who care so much about good design, good food, and good things that they’re willing to fork over too much money for the things that matter to them.
That said, some of the most frugal people I know are those with the most money. Shopping at Target or Costco does not mark you as low status. Not at all. Shoppers at those stores run the gamut from lower-income families to large Orthodox Jewish families to sittin’ pretty brownstone dwellers from Brooklyn Heights. And everything in between.
How about the Food Coop? Does it just attract those who can’t afford to shop at Fresh Direct, Whole Foods, or Dean and Deluca? Not really. Was a time when the Coop was the only place in the Slope where foodies could load up on the organic food, produce, gourmet cheese and artisan breads they required. And they were willing to put up with the monthly work requirement and the Coop’s much maligned eccentricities, of which there are plenty.
The Slope definitely has a class system and it’s getting more and more obvious now that real estate values are rocketing skywards. And stratification breeds envy. OTBKB reader, Sloper, writes: "Somebody’s b-stone is always even more nicely renovated, on a better block, etc. and let’s not discuss how I envy the celebrity owners of townhouses on quaint tree-lined streets in the West Village. And last summer, I was at a Slope party, only to discover that we were nearly the only b-stone owners that did not have a weekend house in the Hamptons or Upstate (and these were "old slopers" not finance/law moguls). But, whoa, I don’t want to get too carried away here."
What makes Brooklyn such an interesting place is the crush of cultures and classes that co-exist (somewhat) comfortably. Sameness is boring. It’s fun to have neighbors from many many backgrounds, many points of view. While the Slope itself is, to some extent, homogeneous, it is near enough to other neighborhoods, other lifestyles, and other ways to be, to make it interesting.
And that’s what makes Brooklyn Brooklyn.
